Friday David and Kat came to stay which was nice.  We couldn't decide what to have for dinner, so went to the shop for inspiration.  While staring at the fridge some random came in so David asked "what's for dinner?", to which she said, pasta with chicken, cream, sundried tomatoes, and D&K were like "can we come to your place?" haha.  Did pick up some stuff and made creamy bacony porky pasta.  After dinner we finished the jigsaw I'd been working on for the week (all that was left was sky that took a third of the jigsaw).  And we put on Flying High because Kat needed to see it.  Except she wouldn't watch it.  Oh well.

Saturday morning we started a new jigsaw before they wandered off.  Didn't have a particularly efficient day.  Did some food shopping but that was about all.  Thought we'd have a nice quiet evening.  Watched Wall-E (because we don't have Ratatouille).  After the movie I tried to use David's G7X in stars mode, but I couldn't get it to focus.  I completely lost it.  My brother can get the most amazing photos out of that camera, but I can't even operate it in point and shoot mode.  Such a failure at life.  Which was sad because the sweetie had come out to sit with my while I was doing stuff, which was really nice, but I couldn't deal and went to bed.  And then woke up at about 1:45am and stayed awake for the next three or four hours.  Hurrah.

Sunday I was pretty much a zombie, so again, nothing got done.  Such a waste of a weekend.  I shoulda gone petanquing.  

David and Kat came back in the afternoon, complete with broken ankle.  Kat had rolled it on uneven ground on Saturday night.  They got it treated at Goulburn Base Hospital on Sunday on the way back here.  We finished the jigsaw we started on Saturday and watched some Good Place and had roast pork for dinner, and I slept a whole lot better.

Monday evening I think I managed to achieve more in an hour than I did all weekend.  Silly really.

Tuesday evening was hurty, which was remedied with wine and pizza, and a drink with Kit and Pete, one of our last ever at their place.  Sad times.

Turned on the cooler tonight for the first time this season.  I think it's going to be a hot one....

I could get used to them.

Friday took a random day off and got things done.  Mostly planning and tax type stuff.  And got the pool looked at.  And went food shopping.  Watched Star Trek Into Darkness in the evening.

Saturday was more of the same.  In the afternoon went to Casey Jones for Wello's 40th birthday drinks/snacks thing which was quite nice. Stu had been out at the club and was originally planning to stay the night but decided to come home.  So we went to Scott's where the N-Gang was all having pizza.  Unfortunately it was a super late night as these nights often are.  

So was pretty tired all day today.  Got stuff done in the morning though (including loading up the green bin and more tax stuff).  Spent several hours in the afternoon watching dad's WWII documentaries and finally finished checking Vic's Lego.  Just a little bit of filing of the last of the pieces and then it will be time to start collecting pieces to construct sets!

Watched Cheaper by the Dozen in a couple of parts over the weekend, and Finding Nemo tonight.

So I flexed off Friday.  With no power and no internet there were no distractions, so had a super productive morning tidying the house, and I got behind the tv cabinet and tidied up and pulled out a bunch of stuff no longer in use and finally FINALLY put the PS3, Wii and new dvd player into the cabinet, so that's all much more betterer.

Then I picked up Neil and we went to Ryan McNaught's Brick Man exhibition.  As you do.

Then I came home (via work and a bit of supply shopping) and tidied up the rack which had degenerated into a massive mess, and pulled out my computer desk and tidied and cleaned behind that.

David and Kat came to stay and we did a jigsaw and got pizza for dinner (two nights in a row hrmmm).

So a super productive Friday.

Saturday wasn't as productive but did get a bit of stuff done.  Went out to the club in the afternoon and helped Fiona prep and serve dinner for sixty people.  These dinners are getting bit out of control...

Sunday morning was mostly food prep and a bit of tidying.  Had Nat and Andrew come over for our annual hanami lunch which was nice.  And then played Mario Kart all afternoon. 

Went down to Kit's in the evening, took a bit of cheese that turned out to be dinner (big lunch, not hungry), but got talked into staying later and later.  Whoops.

Monday was still trying to keep up with All The Things.  Got some of it done but not all.  Later in the arvo we went over to EffanC's for drinks and dinner, and R&F came too which was nice.  Collapsed into bed for an early night.

Went over to Chrissie's for dinner on Friday.  It's been too long since I've seen them.  Didn't help that they were sick for like a month.  Aunty Di is coming down in the school holidays - mum you should get a slideshow together and come down.

Saturday was pretty much just house stuff all day.  I did make a lemon cheesecake that generally turned out well but needs a tweak or two on the recipe.  Just need to practise til I get it right ;)

Saturday evening we went over to Scott's so he could get a bit of practise with the pizza oven.  It turned out to be a slow process and by the time we got through three pizzas (two of them gluten free) we were quite full.  And there wasn't even enough cheese ;)

Sunday just more house type stuff.  Did some food shopping and cooked pork belly for dinner.  Still not convinced by the recipe I've used twice now.  Tastes good but the crackling goes bubbly (and takes effort not to burn) and just isn't as good (and doesn't keep as well) as my normal method.  Watched Snatch because the guys at work said it was good, but I wasn't convinced.  I even struggled to stay awake through some of it..

Tonight I finished labelling day 16 of our East Asia trip, only three days to go.  And then I did a 500 piece jigsaw.  In an hour.  Whoops.

Had the best weekend on account of it being a quiet weekend.

Friday night we watched Insurrection, which was a bit of fun but really just a long episode of Next Generation. Last night we watched Nemesis.  I guess we'd watched it at some point because I thought we'd watched throught movies I-X at some point, but I couldn't remember anything about it other than Data dying (although not remembering how).  Apparently I saw it at the movies fifteen years ago with Campbell and Striker etc.  Really need to be more diligent about logging random crap like that.

Yesterday we just did some food shopping then house stuff.  Today was just house stuff.  There might have been jigsaw time in amongst that.  Oops.

Yesterday I watched Oversimplified's take on the American Revolution, so tonight we watched The Patriot, like one of my favourite Jason Isaacs movies ever.  Except.  The music is by John Williams.  I've seen this movie like ten times.  How the F*&$ did I not know this already?????  Of course then I could hear it all the way through.  Mostly Harry Potter.  Basically, yes, I'm RETARDED.

So Saturday I did actually have a pretty good day.  The morning was mostly house worky type stuff, and the afternoon was mostly photo sorting type stuff, So Much Photo Sorting.  The idea being to group the majority of my "friends" photos together so that I can just burn dvds for people all at once.  I got through about two different sets of friends.  Partly. 

Just before 17:00 the little brother type person arrived and I was like, right, let's go shopping (the sweetie had only just gotten home and didn't feel like shopping).  So did food shopping for the evening and the week.  So much quicker with David than Stu haha!

In the evening went over to R&F's with the extended N-Gang for some lovely curries.  Was quite a pleasant evening and late, but not stoopidly late.

Sunday the sweetie went to work *again*, so David and I spent the entire day doing a 1500 piece jigsaw which was completely unproductive but pretty cool.  We finished it over dinner (of roast chicken).  I considered going to take fountain photos during the day but by the time I checked its running times it was too late.  Oh well.  Kit and Pete also came up for a while over dinner.

Last night the sweetie and I both slept terribly.  Even though we went to bed early, him not getting to sleep and me waking up and staying awake for hours took its toll.  Stu couldn't concentrate and ended up going home after lunch.  I would have gone too but had too many things to do, so struggled through the afternoon and took a bus home. 

Tonight ended up being a washing, beer and pizza kind of a night.  Way too early in the week for that sort of thing, but I knew I wouldn't be able to concentrate on photo labelling.  So at 19:45 I declare it bed time.

Also I was playing Candy Crush on the bus this arvo and hit the "five extra moves" button by accident.  There went another 10 of my gold, reducing me to 1 gold left.  I think I've used the gold I've collected on Candy Crush about twice deliberately, the rest of the gold has been wasted by phone upgrades or just ridiculousness like that.  I rage quit it and don't know that I'll go back any time soon.

Crap.  I've done it again.  Sorry.

Mostly same ole same ole.

Did lunch with DC at the Labor Club on Wednesday to use up my birthday vouchers.

Thursday we watched Star Trek IV which made me all kinds of happy.

Friday we went to the Tipsy Bull for dinner, which was actually pretty cool, some very nice gins and very nice tapas style food.  Then we came home and watched Star Trek V.  It has some great moments, and the chemistry between Kirk/Spock/McCoy is at its peak, but the whole rest of the movie is .. well.. silly..

Saturday I completed the fourth part of the Disney behemoth (Saturday afternoon I put on The Jungle Book while I was finishing off the jigsaw - it was .. well.. silly..  I think I liked the "real-life" version better (ok so it's mostly cgi not real life)).  Then went to EffanC's for dinner, and Scott came too which was nice, but it was a very late night, and of course I woke up at 7am anyway, didn't I.  So was pretty much a zombie today.  Had brunch, then linner, and "dinner" was chips and ice cream while watching the first episode of Secret City, which was distracting on account of been-theres. heh

So where were we?  Oh yes, yet another week has passed..

Wednesday morning we hopped a flight to Melbourne for Kit's graduation.  

!!!

Her parents were overseas so couldn't make it, so we filled in.  

Wait, let me backtrack a minute.  On Tuesday morning the sweetie messaged me to say his ballot for a points upgrade to business class had gone through.  So I'm like.. friggen great.. now I could lose my left-side-of-the-plane window seat.  So I tried to check in online.  I was able to choose seats on the left side of the plane (yayy!!) but the screen hung after the declaration of dangerous goods.  I tried to reload the page but it just said I couldn't check in online.  Thinking it was me stuffing up the webpage loading I tried to call Qantas to reset the error.  None of the options on the phone menu matched anything I wanted so I just ###### in an attempt to talk to a human.  Well it did put me in a queue.  For the next forty five minutes.  In the end I tried the online webchat, and got through to a human pretty quickly.  They said because of our upgrade we couldn't check in online.  Well why didn't you fricken say that on the error on the webpage you buttplugs!!!!  Why make me waste fifty minutes on hold (before I evenutally hung up after talking to webchat person)?!?

Anyway.

So we got to the airport somewhat early, and sure enough did get the seats I requested which was a relief.  Had breakfast in the business lounge which is somewhat nicer than regular Qantas club, and I had bacon, eggs and mushrooms for breakfast and a croissant.

Ok so business class.  Never flown it before.  Ok the service was bit nicer/quicker.  They offered us still or sparkling water before take off.  And we got actual metal cutlery and didn't have to peel a cover off our quiche.  But the seats, while wider and more legroom, were more reclined than usual, and I couldn't actually reach the floor, even with my slight heels.  So somewhat uncomfortable.  I'd much rather business class on a long haul flight so I can lay down flat(ish).  It is somewhat more quieter in front of the engines though.

So on a Canberra to Melbourne flight you really want the left side of the plane.  You typically take off to the north from Canberra airport, then curl around to the west then south west over north Canberra.  Which means.. I can see my house from here!  Had a great view of Canberra, everything I hoped for.  At least that part of the flight was pretty awesome.

And then to Melbourne.

We got tickets for the Sky Bus, because it's like half to two thirds the price of taking taxis, and went pretty close to our hotel.  Funnily enough, we booked into Travelodge Docklands, where I've stayed twice in the past year for work.  When booking the hotel I asked for a room on the east end of the building, because it has a much nicer view.  But, like just about every other customer service experience I've had in the past couple of weeks, it was terrible, and they ignored my request, and we ended up on the west end of the building with a lovely view of the Channel 9 building.  Thanks Travelodge.  NOT!

We couldn't actually checkin when we arrived at 12pm, so dumped our stuff and headed over to the Convention Centre for the graduation.  We met up with Kit and Pete, and then we went to the pub across the way with Pete while Kit got a gown etc.  She met up with us just before it started and then left again.  We finished our drinks but even though we were only slightly later than the suggested time, the auditorium was almost completely full, and we had to sit way over on the side and couldn't sit with Pete, he was two rows in front.  The graduation ceremony was .. well it was a graduation ceremony.  Hadn't been to one since my own in 1996.  Was somewhat like I remembered.

Afterwards there was some pretty average "refreshments".  Kit got her degree framed and bought her stage photo, then we queued for the studio photos.  For like an hour.  We were getting pretty tired by then.  And they were all stoopidly fussy about anyone taking their own photos, which I thought was COMPLETELY ridiculous.  There was no way we were going to queue for an hour and then not buy any of their photos.  STUPIDITY, GFP!! I didn't even bother, but Pete got told off for trying to get a quick snap.  I hate that sort of attitude, GFP, JUST SAYIN!!

Afterwards we walked Kit and Pete back to their apartment and had a couple of quiet drinks (Kit's back was killing her and the sweetie was super exhausted so we didn't go out).  Then walked all the way back to our hotel, where we had thins and aero for dinner and watched the end of War Games.

In the morning...  well other than breakfast in the hotel which was ok .. but .. 

Second Qantas drama in a row.  I tried to check in to the flight but we had been "upgraded" to exit row seats.  Which are like THE WORST SEATS ON THE PLANE.  Right over the wing, you can't see a damned thing.  This is an epic DOWNGRADE for me.  And I couldn't change the seats online.  Once again, we had to go to the airport to deal with it.  I told the sweetie he could keep the seat if he wanted, but he said he'd sit with me.  So I explained my situation to the checkin dude who was all cool and gave us seats further back.  Although row 22 which is still a bit close to the wing.  Not like the seats I actually reserved when I booked.  Completely pissed off with Qantas over all the drama they caused me.  The flight wasn't even full, and we could have had seats further back.  At least the sweetie didn't have to sit in the middle.

So work, drinks, etc.

Friday morning was optometrist appointment.  Honestly Specsavers are *completely* unorganised.  I first went two years ago and got a full eye check and new glasses.  They said they'd like to get a baseline for potential glaucoma (family history and all), and scheduled me in for a checkup in a year's time.  So last year I got the reminder notice, and booked an appointment.  When I got there the staff were all like.. "why are you here?  You just had a checkup..? and I'm like .. um, because you told me to.  They eventually figured out I was just there for the glaucoma tests.  Again they said come back in a year.  So I got my reminder recently and booked in an appointment, making it quite clear that it was just for the glaucoma tests.  So I get one of the tests, but then the one of the optometrists comes out and he's like "why are you here?" and I then had to explain the situation AGAIN, IN FRONT OF EVERYONE IN THE STORE!!  Don't these guys understand *anything* about patient confidentiality???  I was actually pretty annoyed with the guy.  Specsavers please get your act together!

For lunch Neil and I were planning "grease" at KFC, but the queue was a bit long, so he suggested Grill'd, which usually involves sharing wine.  Then hot chocolate at Max Brennar.  Whoops ;)

Last Sunday night we watched Star Trek Beyond, which I could barely remember anything about it was that.. memorable..  So I decided we should watch all the Star Trek movies from the beginning.  So on Friday night we watched The Motionless, sorry, Motion Picture.  Honestly nothing happens.  They get called on to intercept a thing.  So they do.  And that's all they do for the next two and a quarter hours.  Although I can imagine that trekkies after a ten year break would have wet themselves over seeing the Enterprise on the big screen.

Saturday was out to the club for yet another whole day wasted, this time for the AGM.  

Oh I should mention, since we got back, after Pete's sister left on Friday, I was feeding Kit's animals.  On Saturday morning I went out and collected twenty one eggs!!!  So Saturday night we used nine of them to cook a frittata for dinner.  Fun times.

Then we watched Khaaaaaaan.  

Today was just a quiet day doing all the things, although not all the things, cause I don't have time for all the things.  Did do some food shopping and cooked a lamb roast for dinner. 

And then we watched The Search for Spock.  There's a bunch of funny quotes, but the one that transported me back at least twenty five to thirty years was "Up your shaft" which Scotty mutters to the turbolift.  I first saw this movie in probably about 1990 with Chrissie.  I can't remember anymore if we hired it or if it was on tv, or if we watched it at her place (I think we did) or mine.  But I do remember we both absolutely cacked ourselves over that line.

And so ends another week.

Sunday night I woke up at 2:30 and didn't get back to sleep til about 5:30.  Hurrah.

Tuesday was fairly quiet.  A small group of us went to Kingsley's.  Not KFC, which is more traditional, but Kingsley's is easier for a group.  In the afternoon went with Doc and Neil to Frank Bradley's funeral.  Lovely guy, had met him several times at bbqs at @CLBradley's, he made great salads, and stayed at his house at Kangaroo Valley for Chris' 50th.  He was 87 (and had only stopped working a year or so ago!)  In the evening we were going to go to Stanley's for dinner, except the place is closed on Tuesdays :(  Ended up at the George.  Had lamb shanks which were nice enough, but too much food and ended up feeling full and bloated which wasn't much fun, not to mention not sleeping well.

Wednesday was a pub lunch with comms.  Had nachos which were nice enough, but too much food and ended up feeling full and bloated which wasn't much fun, not to mention not really feeling like working in the afternoon.  Almost escaped early, and even made it to the car, but the sweetie got stuck at work, so went back inside for an hour.  Went to bed really early and actually had a pretty good nights' sleep.

Friday another early morning wake up, this time with hurty.  Had another pub lunch, this time with the Chrises, but this time I wisely shared some wings with @CLBradley, which meant didn't get overfull or bloated.  Much more pleasant.  In the evening watched I Kill Giants which was ok but I actually found it a bit disappointing because (spoiler alert!) she doesn't actually kill giants.  I mean I assumed that's where they were going with it, but it was still a bit of a let down.

Had a pretty quiet Saturday morning.  I probably should have labelled photos or scanned photos or sealed the shower, but instead spent the entire morning doing the jigsaw.  In the afternoon I went over to Chris's and picked up ingredients to make a lemon cheesecake slice.  It turned out ok, but a bit too smooshy, really could have done with a smidgen of gelatin.  We've been watching more Parts Unknown, getting through Tangiers, Peru, Congo (dug out my copy of Heart of Darkness I might read again some time) this week and Jerusalem last night.  I had the idea we should watch The Black Stallion Returns (I'd seen The Black Stallion recently although I didn't blog it which didn't help, and the sweetie wasn't with me.  The last time I saw them before that was when I bought them in 2004).

Today I sealed the shower.

FINALLY.

It only took me a year.  

Then we went to Serkan's for a Killifish group meeting, then to Jem Aquatics to revisit the lights situation.  I'd told them I wanted to go back to fluoros for now, so they refunded me for all three failed LEDs and I got some NEC (not Aqua One yayyyy!!) fluoros.  I was super happy and relieved, thanks Jem Aquatics!  I really am going to avoid Aqua One products wherever possible, and certainly avoid them for anything electronic.  Maybe in a couple of years time another manufacturer will get it right and I'll get lights that should last a lot longer...

When I went out to the kitchen yesterday morning this is what I saw:

Snow!  I didn't think it was cold enough for snow, but there was a big dumping on the hills above Googong.

The morning was spent cleaning, tidying, organising.

Then went on several missions:

• dump three boxes of books at Lifeline: success
• dump a bag of junk at the Green Shed: success
• exchange or get a refund on the DODGY Aqua One LED lights: fail*
• get 10c refund on some drinks bottles: success, maybe**
• food shopping: success***

* Remember I had to replace a dodgy Aqua One LED back in January?  Well that light we bought last October died a month or so ago.  And then another light we bought in March died a couple of weeks ago.  So that's ALL THREE DODGY lights from Aqua One have failed - one after just four months!!  In January Jem Aquatics replaced the light on the spot without any drama.  But this time they weren't playing ball.  They took the two lights and the receipts and said they'd talk to the Aqua One rep and get back to me.  Well they haven't yet.  Not only that, but that light that was replaced in January?  IT WAS DEAD THIS MORNING!!  THAT'S ALL FOUR DODGY AQUA ONE LIGHTS HAVE FAILED!!!!!  I am completely pissed.  If I pay twice as much for a light, I want it to last twice as long, not HALF as long!!  I really want to get my money back on them and go back to flouros.  And NOT Aqua One.  They completely suck.  Dodgy cheap made in China crap.  I've always hated Aqua One.  The whole episode left me feeling a bit stabby.

** So the ACT has started doing 10c refunds on bottles.  There's a collection point at Vinnies in Belco, so we took a box of bottles there.  I was expecting a machine that would scan the barcodes of the bottles and provide cash on the spot.  You know, like EVERYWHERE ELSE.  But no, there's a computer screen and a human.  You have to REGISTER to return your f@%$ing bottles!!  How f$@*ed is that??  They want name, address, phone number and even a freakin security question such as mother's maiden name.  Are you freaking kidding me???  All for a dollar or two at a time's worth of bottles.  And I didn't even get any money back - they just bag everything up and tell you "you'll get your money some time".  Yeah right.  As we were leaving they were packing up, so you can't even go at a convenient time.  Return-IT you SUCK!  I really should have just told them to screw themselves and just dump everything in our recycling bin.

*** I was pretty upset from the lack of outcome with Jem Aquatics and terrible experience from Return-It, so food shopping wasn't much fun.  We got a turkey roast and other stuff.  Got home and was on my feet for the next couple of hours preparing dinner and making a caramel slice.  Collapsed in front of an Anthony Bourdain and Frozen.