Shagged, absolutely shagged ...

WOW!!! That was quite literally a month ago ... What is with these monthly updates??? Around the time of meeting/enjoying Moz, thiese updates were virtually weekly, but now? Although I could claim work pressures, that seems a bit odd, especially given that I was working then, and I have had off since 24/12 ...
Anyway, since then:

• Received iPod cable from Moz, along with a 'brief' post-it note claiming work pressures, so sent back a note extending best wishes, and season's greetings;
• Discovered that everyone was very keen to move out of KG - to the point of 1 night Shane says 'looking at places', 2 nights later he says 'moving this w/e' ... None of the places I was looking at worked out :( but then AnnE texted me to say that the neighbour was moving on, did I want to take over lease? Had another possibility at South Brisbane, so rang them to see what the go was, but they refused to commit until I had looked at the place, so I rang Drakos, who said to submit an application as a formality, but go for your life! So got Trent to help me move everything across over the w/e, started setting up. Except got a call on Monday from Drakos to say bad reference from MetroCity, so not happy! Inherent in voice was 'So, can you move out tonight?' but used my skills and training to work around that ... Next step is now to ensure that I can stay there, as AnnE/Brettski and Sev like me being here;
• Been trying to get a Bike 2 sensor from Sigma through LifeCycle, but they are extremely lazy about the whole ordeal, so might have to venture elsewhere to finalise that, as I still do not have the cadence attachment! But, it is fun riding and recording results :) mapping how things change, even just in terms of distance, time, avg speed;
• Turns out BQ charged me twice for membership :o but they were so nice about fixing up the mistake, so I am extremely gratified;
• J/Z rang me up to say that 'Toxic Garden Gnomes' were playing at Step Inn, and that she had not had a drink in 15 months, but wanted to go out, have some fun! Thinking that this may be a night to just keep an eye on how things unwound, make sure she did not go OTT, I had a couple of beers before she was due. Except she turned up with a rather nice bottle of wine, and when I mentioned that I had no fridge, so it would not remain chilled whilst we were out, she just smiled at me in a rather odd way ... Drank that bottle ... Went out, and drank G&Ts ... Came home, drank another bottle of wine ... Then shagged my brains out :o As I said, I am glad that she does not drink very often;
• The other reason that I had a few beers previously was that I was psyching myself up to call Ray, see if I could arrange to see Cam, amicably, peacefully. Except that she called me up, to ask if she and Cam could come visit me the next afternoon ... Which was really a lot of fun ... So, talked a lot. Very confused and confusing ... Went for dinner at Tukka, which was fun and interesting ... Took her and Cam out for pho for Cam's b/day ... Had sex ... Went to movie - 'Gulliver's travels' at Southbank ... Talked/explored ... Confused and confusing;
• Got disbursement from estate of Father - As long as it is fair and equitable, we will move onwards. Except not fair, and requires an extremely perverted perception to be able to see as 'equitable' ... Mother gets the house, all chattels, including the 4WD (which she does not drive, having a car of her own, and Suze is busy using the 4WD, anyway), the 1st $100000, and a 1/3 of the remaining, with the rest to be divided amongst the others :o At first I thought it was quite unfair, and that I should investigate the law of succession in Qld ... But then I thought that they are adults, and need to take responsibility for their actions, so ... whatever. Anyway, promptly put a chunk into 6mth term deposit with BoQ, whilst I work out what is happening, paid some onto cards, and allocated some to 'frittering' - was thinking I may get a linen suit made up at the local - and also am keen to start QPT fund;
• Over the Xmas break, have seen Mere, went to Ikea for some supplies (e.g. kitchen bench), and bought some prezzies (e.g. Shuffle for JimE, Japanese bell for Ray); and,
• Most importantly, though, I have been riding! Set myself a goal for 500k over the 10 days off, and started well, with a ride on Xmas day. But then the next few days were really wet, and I had overstretched my groin muscle from sitting with my leg crossed when talking to Ray late 1 night (and what a night that was), so seriously doubt I will be achieving that goal. But have been having a lot of fun tootling around the river run ...

Oh, and I have a new phone - a HTC 'Wildfire' and it is proving a lot of fun playing with it! Telstra texted me to say that I now have 1GB a month allowance, which was pretty bloody useless on my other phone! So I had to get a new one, of course ;) But since then, I have had the most weirdest time trying to download the actual user manual from the HTC site - tried it like 7 times, best I managed was like 15% of total size!
Oh, and did I mention that I seemed to have chipped my tooth further, that the Dentist booked me an appointment for 15/01/11 ((anyone else would go to another Dentist), and it really, really bloody hurts!!!

Well, not THAT long ago ...

WOW!!! That was quite literally over a month ago ...
Am sitting at Rumpus Room again awaiting for the ambient joys of 'Music geekz' to begin, the monthly 4ZZZ get together to showcase music too arty or weird to hear anywhere else ... Besides, also a great opportunity to drink some Mercury Cider and see what is happening in the suburb of West End ... Seems to be more and more changes going on every time I look - there is a City Cycle station outside the Boundary Hotel ... Which does arouse an interesting mental picture of drinking solidly, then getting on a bike and pedalling homewards ... Hmm, the whole idea of drunk in charge of a vehicle suddenly sounds almost plausible ...
The casual Xmas party was yesterday arvo at Zena's (oddly enough, around the corner from where Dani used to get on), but there were less than ten there ... But I am guessing that a lot more than that had paid $10, but just not turned up? Was a rather incredibly wet and wild afternoon, weather wise, anyway ... Although, the tiramisu that Richard bought along had a bottle of Kahlua in it, so it proved a rather strong ending to the afternoon ... Also got to drink some of these 'fruit tingles' (vodka + Blue Curoca?) that Zena made, along with a cheeky bottle of Pinot Noir. Also took along some Brie + crackers, but I was the only one who ate it ... Oh, well, suppose at least somebody enjoyed it ...
Then left with Skyy and Trent, except it turned out that Skyy was actually going out elsewhere, and Trent was going to come back to get Zena so that they could go out somewhere else, so I tagged along to see what happened ... Ended up at the Casino, eating a seafood platter, drinking mango slushies, listening to the tales of betwitchment, and bewilderment ... All this bacchanalia was at least compensated in some way by my riding Bernini across the bridge, and then around the river. Was so good that at the end, I stopped at uGees, and thought to myself that I could easily go a bit further ... So now all I need to do is keep doing it again. And again. And again ...

Oops, that long ago?

The beat goes on ...
The ride from Southbank to Southport (GC100) was really quite difficult (surprise, surprise) and I really noticed it on the last 10km, as all these people just kept riding past me ... Whereas prior to that I had actually been passing people on the way down ... Coming out of the 2nd rest stop started chatting with a fellow who was spinning quite well, and we rode together for awhile nattering away about life and racing bikes-he being of the opinion that they were not warranted on such a ride ... He tried to do track stop at the lights at one point, but fell over just as the lights changed, as you would ... Saw a Canyon bike just coming past Griffith Uni, so sprinted after the bloke for a bit of a chat - turns out a) he was German; and b) knew people over there who bought it for him, and then shipped it to him ... Although, that is an idea ... The organisers gave us so much food, but it did include some of those Cadel bars that I like(d) ... For the most part riders seemed really well behaved, or maybe it was just that I had incredible powers of tolerance? But, either way, there was no slapping of anybody ... Seemed to be a lot of people just riding along alone, so I must really work out how to utilise/exploit such opportunities? Anyway, did the ride, then turned around and rode to the Helensvale station, fortunately with a tailwind :) Had a can of coke to refresh, although as I say, did feel quite amazed at my general level of not excessive pain or discomfort ... The ride back in the train was comical-bikes all over the place, including standing up in seats! Fortunately, not many people got onto the train after the station ... Got home, found the door locked!!! So pottered about, screaming (not quite) silently, then buckled down-had jeans + shirt under house :) so washed self under hose, and dried off with a convenient towel lying about, then headed over to visit Annie. Drank almost a bottle of Cooper's Red before bus came, then bought another before heading over to her place. Brettski was in kitchen making pancakes (+ other foods), so sat down to chat with Annie and friends. One of whom was the William that I had heard of before-turns out that he was as mad as a cut snake, and had some pet snakes ... Could be someone to provide advice, maybe? Anyway, then made way to Rumpus Room to listen to 4zzz and their new tunes, enjoy a few Mercury Draughts. Started heading home, and Shane rang to say he could go unlock door for me, so that I could get in. So went home and collapsed into bed, start to recover. But, at least my legs were not spasming/twitching, as with some previous rides ... Anyway, the statistics speak for themselves: total ride time of 4h 4 mins 41 secs; total distance (from home to Southport) 105.68km; average speed of 23.77kph; max speed of 55.41kph; and, average cadence 85 rpm ...
The night before I had been to a 'End of contract' dinner at the Port Office Hotel, where a fixed menu meal was enjoyed by possibly 15 various co-workers, albeit all others knew each other, being all from the same team ... But, I felt it was important to make the effort, and had a really fun night :) Ended up enjoying a rather tasty piece of rump, and then a nice piece of white chocolate mousse. But I did not stay on too late, as I had the ride on in the morning, which is also why I refused to have any alcohol ... Or so I convinced myself? Wore the light linen pants, along with the blue striped shirt with cufflinks from Father's collection - but discovered that the cuffs were too big for my wrists :o Interesting, very interesting ... The night before that, about 8 of us from Theo's team had met up at the Farmer's Hotel up at Annerley, to have a few drinks, play the pokies, catch up out of work, and to celebrate the end of the contract, even if it was now to continue to March next year ... Oh, and there was also 'singing' (karaoke) involved, but (unfortunately) I had to leave just as that was starting :( Did drink that night, and even got to the bottleshop next door for a bottle of Coopers Red, just as they were shutting ... Anyway, it was good that something was organised, that people came, had fun, including me ...