BrisVegas

Sorry for the lack of updates I have been in Brisbane since Friday on what we like to call a "Boys Weekend".

My mate Gools in Brisbane had a baby, I had a free weekend as did my mate Noyz and we booked the flights and went.

Our hotel was a 5min walk from Queen Street Mall, and basically we spent up big at I think every bar and club on that strip.

Added bonus, we also went to the soccer and were sitting just a few rows back behind the Iraqi bench.

Live and kidneys are working, but barely... and normal Lime Kettle diatribe will resume tomorrow...

The teams line up for the National Anthems...

Pissed Idiots

Weekend - A Big One...

Lets just say that this weekend passed in a blur of alcoholic beverages…

Friday afternoon… catch up with old work colleagues… drink too much… lose track of time… home at 2am.

Saturday awake bleary eyed in time to get to my cricket match in which I scored a nice 32 out of a total of 6/236 at stumps. If you’re interested Tommy, the knees held up through my 90min innings but seized up once the pads came off and I sat down.

Then with said bung knees I went off to a mates Bux Night on Saturday Night. It was billed as a big one and we didn’t disappoint. Not only was my mate Wayne getting married and his brother Simon put on a good session of food, grog and “entertainment” but it was announced that another mate Angelo was going to be a first time Dad and the fact that all the old boys had gathered together it was an appropriate time to announce. His wife Karen is only 11 weeks along, but it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

And we didn’t miss! In a session that went until 3:30am, we celebrated being 35 years old and too old to be in a nightclub by drinking our collective weights in Bourbon, Scotch and Beer. Needless to say, it was a good night but bloody hell was Sunday messy!! I took little Brookie to the Springwood Pool on Sunday afternoon at about 3pm and I wallowed in the water with her nursing a thumping head ache and the knees were beyond reproach… I have made a new friend and his name is Voltaren!

Pictures of shame below!

(edit - Blogger not receiving pics... will put them up later)

(edit#2 - Pics below... perhaps I shouldnt have!)

Me and the mysterious "Ray Siebs"

Noyz, looking for the SpyVsSpy Concert...

Angelo... Dad to be and very happy and perhaps a little bit pissed....

Naval Gazing

Well, the election is over... I have been informed of who Amy Winehouse is (and I now dont care) and in the absence of any real political scandal I will take today to mull over what is happening in my world...

 

Well, for starters, work has been very busy.  I have been getting home very late at night the last couple of weeks with leaving the office at 6:30pm being "an early mark".  Got home after midnight the other night and last night was a 9:30pm home time... but once I reach this month end this week, the pace should slow down.

 

Between now and Xmas, work will remain busy.  My new company doesnt have a massive fancy dress Xmas Party and instead has a big in house lunch on the last day before we break up (Dec 21).  Seafood, hot food and heaps of beer & wine is apprently the go... and whilst I was initially disappointed there was no major alcohol fueled shin-dig, I am warming to that idea... besides, I am only newish here and I wouldnt consider myself drinking buddies with anyone yet...

 

Having said that my ex-drinking buddies at my old work are planning for a night out, so I may have the best of both worlds!

 

Xmas aside, work will still be busy.  I will probably be in Melbourne for 2-3 days in mid-December.  With my company having most of its physical operations in Victoria, I do have to get down there fairly often.  So, I will probably be down there Dec 17-18 and perhaps 19.

 

Outside of work, we're having a Xmas BBQ this weekend with my mates and as an indication of how old we are, we're hiring a jumping castle for the kids.

 

Xmas itself we're determined to alter last years disaster in which we had lunch at my sisters in Ryde and then dinner at our place for Niki's family.  We're doing the Xmas Lunch and the Boxing Day Lunch this year.  We'll be hosting the Boxing Day affair, so that should be more relaxing.

 

But before Xmas, its my birthday in early December and I am really unsure what I want... both Dad and Niki have asked me and I have drawn a blank... must be getting old :)

 

On the gaming front, CanCon preparations on Australia Day are heating up and I have had a stack of new miniatures arrive to paint.  So much so, that my friend PianoDan is going to paint me up a Chaos team.  Its $300 but money well spent in my opinion.  (Check out a sample of his work here)

 

Oh and little Brookie finished her 1000 piece puzzle and we have mounted it on some timber board and intend to hang it on the wall in her bedroom... but no rest for the wicked, she's helping to do Kate's now too... so again, our dining table is awash with puzzle pieces!

Great News

One of my old mates from school emailed around this afternoon to say that he is (well his girlfriend is) expecting a baby!

Well done Gools!!

Unfortunately Gools lives in Brisbane, so now I will have a reason to go up there with Niki & the Girls. Watch out mate, there is going to be a trampling herd of people from Sydney coming up now mate!!

Well done!

One question though... did you take off the Captain Chaos mask when the deed was done?

Anzac Day

Had a good Anzac Day yesterday with a BBQ at our place.  Despite the weather, we had about a dozen people over and we gorged on chips, dips, nibbles, BBQ, salads and then some desert with heaps of beer and wine thrown in.

Basically we sat at the table from 11-11:30 and nobody moved until 5:30pm... except for a quick foray into the lounge room to watch my Saints get bitch slapped by the Roosters (thats another rant I wont bore you with).

Alot of old stories told, new ones shared and people getting too pissed... happy days.

For the formal part of the day, we couldnt get to Dawn Service this year as Kate was a bit crook (she had Tuesday off school with vomiting) and we thought it was too much to wake her at 5:30 and drag her out into the cold.  The girls did watch the march on tele and they do have a good understanding of what the day means.  We havent done anything over the top to push this message so most of their knowledge must have come from school.  They say that Anzac Day is increasingly for younger Australians and I liked the idea of the concert on the Gold Coast on the weekend as well... more of it I say!

Palm Tree For Sale: Bidding Starts At 5c

My mate Tommy is selling a deadset 10m high Palm Tree. The only catch is you need to pay and arrange for its removal! If you are a arburist (sp?) then this may be for you!!!

Hurry only 9 days or so to bid (see link below). Tommy has offered to autograph it too for the winning bidder!

eBay Australia: Queen Palm Tree aka Cocas Palm Tree

Weekend Wrap

Just realised that I only have 4 days of work to go and hence only 4 more days of web access from work.  With my PC dying, I will be bringing my work laptop home, but I am not sure how to connect my Internode ISP service via my work laptop?  I guess I will fiddle around with it…

The weekend itself was great, a big Xmas party Friday night, a good win at cricket on Saturday and a Xmas Picnic on Sunday with friends at Parramatta Park.

Saturday night had a big Chinese meal with Mum & Dad to FINALLY conclude my birthday celebrations and I guess the whole weekend was an exercise in eating and drinking, but to summarise:

Xmas Party:  Dressed as a hobbit, costume was a bit of a success.  Drank fairly heavily, but was not too bad… didn’t eat enough food, got a fake tat that is still on… caught the bus back to the office, found a taxi and was home around 1am.

Cricket:  Played up at Castle Hill in a one-day game.  We were sent in and struggled.  Lost two early wickets before yours truly and Pete put on a 40 odd partnership.  Pete went for 25 and I went quickly behind for 18… the opposition bowlers were very SLOW and that meant there were lots of false shots and slogs.  We were in deep trouble at 7/73 before Big Nick Nardo slogged a massive 49 off very few balls and Stuart Cass hit 29 to get us to all out for 160 in 40 overs.

We then had Hills Barbarians in huge trouble.  1/0, 2/0, 3/2, 4/10…. We destroyed their top order and basically from then on had it in the bag, but some late hitting by their #11 got them to 120.   A great win, we reach the Xmas break in 2^nd spot on 50 points.

Dinner Sat Nite:  Mum & Dad gave me a new office chair for the study complete with a plastic floor mat – something I have needed but never had the cash or inclination to buy… funny how I now have a computer chair, but no computer!  Dinner at the Hilltop Phoenix at Castle Towers which included Salt & Pepper Lobster from the tank.  Love the Chinese and I hadn’t eaten on Saturday, so dinner was a gorge fest… Niki drove me home as I was once again a tad under the weather.

Sunday Xmas Picnic:  A great day at Parra Park with salads and chicken for eats, plus cake & chocolates for desert.  I didn’t intend to drink and only took mineral water, but I bummed a couple of beers of Siebs.  Some tennis ball cricket and sitting under the shady trees listening to the cricket whilst the kids ran around.  We also had brought our own kids a cheapie present and Joe played “Santa’s Helper” and handed out the presents and chuppa chups.  Amazing how kids really believe that Santa came and dropped off a bag of presents behind the tree…  Was a very relaxing day…

Birthday Wrap

Had an excellent birthday weekend this weekend, all thanks to Niki who despite our busy weekend with the girls’ dancing, was able to make me feel good.  It all started on Friday night with a great dinner with just the four of us.  Niki cooked a dish we call “Noodle Stuff” which is basically a pasta bake with rich cheese sauce, bacon, onion and champignon mushrooms – its been a favourite of mine since I was a kid. And to top it off, desert was a home made chocolate sauce pudding… with cookies & cream ice cream!!  Not food you’d eat everyday, but was a great birthday tea.  Niki and the girls also gave me my present – a PlayStation Portable!  Very happy with that, I get so bored on the trains given I have read every book in the house and listened to every CD… will make my trips a lot better.  It came with World Rally Championships and I am not much of a car racing gamer, but it is a very good, realistic game.  The graphics on the PSP are excellent as well, and I’ve been very impressed with it.

Saturday was cricket and Niki took the girls to dance rehearsals so I had the morning to myself.  Of course, I went to the shops and picked up some extra games for the PSP – Madden 06 and the Star Wars Lego game… I bought that as something odd and different and I can tell you it’s a very funny game.  I don’t think I have ever laughed out loud whilst playing a computer game.

Saturday at cricket was excellent.  We came from behind and took 6 for 11 to roll Wenty Waratahs for 80 odd.  We were only defending 128 so that was excellent.  We ran through them so quickly we decided to have another bat and of course yours truly got the obligatory golden duck!  Mistimed leg glace hit high up the bat and was caught at fine leg… ridiculous!  Anyway we set the opposition a target of 160 off 25 overs and they declined to chase and played defensively.  At stumps they were 4/80 odd and we went home with first innings points.  Sees us 2^nd on the ladder.

Saturday night I raced home to catch Kate perform at the Glenbrook Christmas Carols & Fireworks – literally got to the park as she was getting on stage, and saw her do her dance to a huge crowd of people.  We couldn’t stay as we had to get home were Niki had to do hair and sew costumes for the next days full dress rehearsal for Wednesday’s concert.  I of course played with the PSP :-)

Sunday (my actual birthday) was the dancing and I helped out there.  It wasn’t that bad actually and we all had a good day as Niki did the hair and costume changes and I video taped the dances and we got through all the photo sessions.  The girls did really well at the dancing and the concert should be really good – at Panthers this Wednesday night if you’re interested :-)

Then it was off in the late afternoon to Pete and Carly’s wedding at Bexley.  We had a great run from Penrith to Bexley and got there a little bit early!  The wedding was really good – when the bride & groom are relaxed and having fun, it makes a great wedding.  The ceremony was outdoors in the gardens and the reception was at the same venue inside so we basically had a lot of good laughs and caught up.  My mate Steve had returned to Australia with his new wife Kate and we met her – she’s a great girl and made a great impression with everyone and it was really good to see them both.  The boys also made sure I enjoyed myself for my birthday and I was passed a few bourbon & cokes and I did get a little bit boisterous (I actually feel great today – surprisingly!) and during Pete’s speech during the official bit of the reception, he mentioned my birthday and got me to get up and get a bottle of champagne!  Most unexpected – but extremely generous to be thought of.  The proviso of course is I am now dutily bound to remind him of his wedding anniversary!

All in all, a great weekend…. Pity I have to go to work today, but it was a great way to turn 34.

Thanks Nik!!

Pete's Bux Day - Group Photo

Just got the pics of Pete's Bux night - where we had the epic day of go-karting and then drinking...

Anyways, here is a group shot of the day... yours truly with his *excellent* trophy for "Cautious Driving".


This is my first picture post with Blogger Beta - better work :)

Slow Driving, Slow Head

It's sunday evening... I have been up for 4 hrs after sleeping all day and I have very clouded memories of last night.

Pete's bux celebrations started with Go Karting at Minto and it was my first foray into Karting, but I was very keen about it. I generally am with new things and this was no exception.

We were split into 2 groups of 6 and each group had 3 ten lap heats in which points were awarded after every race. We did a practice heat first just to get the feel of the track and I must say after this first practice I was surprised how hard it was. The wheel was hard to turn and there were a couple of very tight turns, but it was great fun.

We just went around and around as fast as we could with no idea on placings and I felt like I was flying... but then the race marshal gave us a print out of our average lap times and I was way off the pace... fastest guy was going around in 37 secs and I was back at 43 secs. Six seconds doesn't sound like much but it was a huge gap.

In the official heats, you go out under a pace car for one lap and then fly into it after the pit lane. I was in the middle of the group for the first race, and I was soon swamped!

To cut a long story short, I found that my problem was that I was driving it like a car... accelerator, brake, accelerate again. I didnt know until the end of the heats that I should just have the accelerator down full and brake when I needed to. I tried that better in the Consolation final and came 2nd, but only because I held off Joey and Noyz by blocking them rather than outrunning them... but a wins a win they say (well second).

Then it was onto Marrickville RSL and then the Rocks. The night is a bit of a blur and I recall getting very "emotional" and abusing the bouncers at the Observer (That pub has gone downhill bad!) before we ended up at the Orient. Live band, packed house, much more lively. I lost track of time, the bus picked us up, I reached Pete's house at the end of the line and crashed on his lounge room floor... very messy indeed.

Bux Weekend

Have a big weekend this weekend with my mate Pete’s Bux Day tomorrow. It’s going to be a very long day as we are go-carting at midday down Campbelltown way, back to his place at Mt Druitt from which we’ve hired a bus to go to Marrickville RSL where they have cheap beers, cheap meals and “entertainment” of dubious quality and then the bus takes us into the Rocks for a pub crawl. The bus then picks us up at around 3am back to Pete’s place where a piece of floor awaits.

It is going to be a loooong day.

I am excited about the Go Carting. Never done it before and should be fun. I’m not a rev head, but I do like the dodgems :-)

And of course, its all fallen on a day which we have the Bye in cricket, so there is no clash. Sunday though will be a rather slow day I presume… will be nursing a ginger outlook on life.

[edit - my post this morning contained my work email disclaimer... fark... gotta watch that]