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!!

Just in case you were wondering, all the rain in Canberra this weekend is entirely my fault - I hung some sheets out on the line on Saturday, and we had plans to tidy up the garden this weekend. Rain has drenched my sheets, and stopped us doing the gardening.

So Friday night was beer and pizza night here (to the edge!!). Saturday was tidying then drinkies at Libby's where we ate and drank quite a lot (mostly champagne cocktails). Today was more tidying and cleaning and took another car-load full of stuff to the storage unit. We have over 6 cubic metres of crap in there. Dunno how we're going to fit it into a new house unless we get five bedrooms.. hrmm...

There's a roast pork and an evil potato bake in the oven. Getting hungry.....

Didn't really think I'd get time to build the Millenium Falcon this weekend. I knew days ago. Sure enough, we were out most of the weekend doing shopping/church/removalist type stuff. And even if I had the time next weekend (which I don't), we don't have any spare horizontal surfaces to put it, except the dining table which will be required at Christmas. So it's going to have to wait until after Christmas when we have some time off.

Can I just say right now, that Dave rocks. Without him, this 12 kilos of Lego would have cost me $150AUD more than it did...

Can't wait til the weekend.... ;)

Nothing much to report. My life is boring. Working an extra half an hour per day sux. Not having much to do other than reading isn't much fun either. Christmas decorations go up this weekend. More photos of lights are sure to follow.

For some months the fans on my computer have been working overtime. I hadn't really thought too much about it.

Today I vacuumed the front of my computer - the large grille that was caked in dust.

Straight afterwards, the computer was suddenly silent. It's obviously had emphysema for months, and is finally breathing easy again.

Have had the boy here all weekend helping me clean and organise for the impending move. Did a trip to the city on Saturday, had some brekky, visited the new Hobbyco store (very disappointing in its range of plastic models), and Abbeys (utterly pathetic computer section). Chorizo pizzas for dinner Saturday, yummm. Today was church, more cleaning, and my last Sunday Night Dinner at Alan and Marylon's.

Tomorrow chaos ensues when the removalists turn up to pack things.....

I swear I'm glad I don't have to put up with that group (or more specifically one of its moderators) for much longer.

Just had another one of my posts rejected. No reason why. I'm *guessing* that they don't like my suburb anymore (they used to).

Far out I'm pissed off. And I can't complain about it to anyone. Complaining is not going to get my message out, just hinder it.

I don't have time for this nonsense. Was hoping to get rid of some things this weekend, and now she's not likely to moderate again til some time tomorrow when it's too late for responses.

No soup for you! Frigging nazi.

<snip>

So I have this dilema: I can't get to sleep easily on my back or side, but if I lay on my tummy my nose either drips like a leaky tap, or alternatively, blocks up completely whereby I'm forced to breathe through my mouth, resulting in puddles of drool on my pillow.

Enough fun imagery so far? heh

So I lay awake in bed for another couple of hours last night, feeling completely miserable because I couldn't stop coughing, couldn't breathe, and therefore couldn't sleep. Not to mention every position simply *hurting* my head and neck. Not fun.

Today I ran out of pain killers and, even more disastrously for tonight, tissues. So it was off to the local shopping centre. Which I *hate* doing on a weekend. Even when I'm not sick. Things were only mildly traumatic getting there, I found a parking spot right by the entrance to the car park (you always want a spot near the exits, not the popular spots by the shops - is good to be able to make a quick getaway).

First stop, the pharmacy. There's about a billion different cold and flu medications. The thing I got last time doesn't exist anymore. Well it does, but it has phenylphrine instead of pseudoephedrine. Cause we can't have the druggies making stuff out of them can we? sigh.

The supermarket stop was ok, although I did buy about three times as many things there that were on my list. Including a chook that I'll roast tomorrow (hey, it was on special! heh).

However coming back to the car, some hothead was trying to reverse into a spot, and someone was in their way behind them. The first I knew of this was when one of them (dunno which) BLASTED their horn just metres from my already throbbing head. With two arms full of shopping I had to endure it. Arrgghhh!! Ouch!! :( What a bunch of bumheads.

Have taken drugs. Hope they kick in soon.

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 .. !!