So there was a bit of chaos in the mall yesterday.  Lots of people, and a camera filming someone outside Harris Scarfe.  Then I heard a familiar voice - it sounded like Peter Russell Clarke!  Took a snap on my iPhone first for Twitpic, then saw confirmation that it really was him! :)  

It's Friday but it doesn't really feel like it.  I'm sure I'm going to wake up tomorrow thinking I'm going to have to go to work.

This time with my high school photos.

I cleaned my desk a bit more today and decided to attack a folder of photos that my mother had sent to my grandmother over the years.  Mum had put some baby photos and all our school photos into folders with nice labels and everyone labelled!  She would have done this with three copies of photos - one for her and one for each set of grandparents.  Dozens of names repeated over and over again over the years.  (In case you were wondering where my obsessive-compulsiveness comes from!!)

Four days, three parties, and a big fail ....

So yesterday I got ready then hopped in the car and drove to Sydney.  Stopping once for petrol and once for morning tea and a toiley break at Maccas in Goulburn.  Passed a sneaky speed camera trap parked in bushes just over a rise.  Checked my speed and it was pretty much exactly 110, phew :)

Got to my old work at lunch time to find they had already wandered up the road without me :(  But at least they hadn't ordered.  Got a caesar salad thinking it'd be lighter than my usual chicken kiev but it still filled me up heaps!!  Wandered back to the office to discover really not much as changed.  Stuff that's been in the same places for years was all still there!  The server room was pretty much unchanged.  More clutter in there, a few new servers, and a few servers that had been turned off.  The biggest change was all the new people heh.  Stacks of new people there, scary.



Hung around there for a bit, then wandered out to Paramatta to see the new cia offices.  Pretty swishy!  Although parking there sucks :( 



Left with Kirk and we wandered back to Ric's place.  Had a beer there before going for a walk to the Italian Forum, going to Caesars for dinner. 



I had a mushroom pasta thing (pappardelle alla funghi or something) which was quite yummy, but unfortunately I was still full from lunch, so didn't feel like eating it :(  Ric got a marinara and Kirk got a meat platter.  Was all pretty good.  Stayed chatting for a while before we wandered back to Ric's and then I left.





Survived the Warringah Expressway (I really hate that bit of road, you never know what lane to be in and constantly have to change lanes to keep on going straight ahead :( ), and arrived at James and George's a bit before midnight.  Chatted for a bit before collapsing into bed.  Can't believe how solidly I slept - closed my eyes and it was night, opened them and it was morning.  Have no memories of being awake in the night at all.  Pretty cool :)

The '/" key on this laptop is broken - very distressing!! :(

A *very very* long time ago (read: 1996), Guy introduced me to Laserwar.

Well it never worked from Windows 2000 onwards, so I haven't played it in a *very* long time. 

But was I was backing up my computer tonight I noticed it again and asked Stu if he had dos 6 on disks anywhere so I could setup a virtual machine to play all my old games.  He said just use dosbox.  So I did!  And dredged up the memories of playing this rather fun little game...

ahh.. the weekend... I think I need a weekend to recover.. :)

So Friday night the boy arrived, and we made wholemeal pizzas (exceedingly yummiferous) and watched Star Trek and The Bourne Identity, with strawberries for dessert.

Saturday we made wholemeal pancakes as per my recipe the other day. Without a blender or lemon juicer. (!) So had to whisk the batter with a fork and squeeze the lemon by hand.. really not recommended! But they turned out really well, and not lumpy as I thought they might be based on the consistency of the flour that went into the batter.

Then we meandered up to the blue mountains at rather a high velocity. M5-M7-M4 and we're at the Nepean River in about 40 minutes. The wattles are starting to look pretty now..

When we got to Leura, we thought we'd take the scenic route. Ended up at Leura cascades (after passing a sign on a restraunt for a Wayzgoose, I'm sure Stu would want that blogged hehe). Walked down to the cascades..

Next it was up to Echo Point to do battle with tourists for a piece of railing.

It was very windy..

Obligatory Three Sisters shot...

Next I thought I'd torture Stu, both mentally and physically...

The Skyway was even running in the insane wind...

The view at the end of the walk is good though..

And the Scenic Railway arrived just as we did

Stu was very brave taking the railway up. Woulda been better going down for his first time, but no intention of ever doing the Giant Staircase *up* heh

It only gets to a maximum angle of 52° but it feels a lot more vertical than that

So then it was a mad dash back to the car, cause we only paid for two hours parking :/ In fact the whole thing felt very rushed and stressful because of that. Next time (hrmm) will park at the Scenic Railway end, which has bucketloads of free parking ..

So then it was back down the hill to Striker's for a bbq for his birthday.

When Jess arrived, she hit the ground. I joined her.

Jess' glow in the dark apple

Jess and I doing Cousin Itt. Very impromptu so I didn't get to brush my hair into place..

Lots of yummy food..

No garage is complete without an anvil..

Or pistons..

Then we dropped Jess home and made it home quite late.

This morning we slept in and finished watching the Bourne Identity. Then off to my parents for a roast pork lunch.

Found some relics from my childhood while cleaning out one of my old cupboards of stuff I really should take to Canberra .. not this tho!

Or this.. which has been in my cupboard for as long as I have memories..

Stopped at San Souci on the way (sort of) home

We're going to Lord Howe Island in one of these..

There's some really cool trees..

And finally home where we spent nearly two hours pulling apart my big original fish tank - getting the fish out, then the plants, then thorough gravel vacuuming, cleaning and finally playing tetris to get it all into Stu's car.

So now the study feels a bit more lonely, and a lot quieter..
Oh yeah .. my calves.. *killing* me .. !!

Watched The NeverEnding Story with George tonight. Haven't seen it something like 18 years. Realised how much of it I'd forgotten - probably because it's somewhat of a forgettable film in a lot of ways. Which is a bit strange because I seem to recall fond memories of it heh.

Haven't heard the theme song in probably that long too, although there is part of the sound track that I have as a trance track somewhere, although finding it would be a bit difficult :) Might make it a project for the long weekend :)

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....