All my mornings should end up as comics.

Brought to you by my trusty Moleskine Storyboard Notebook!

Trop tarde.

(Written Thursday morning, uploaded Friday night, not posted until Sunday. Work ethic!)

Blech.

I've always thought that if you're sick on time you have off (like summer vacation when you're in school) you should get days in lieu. Of course, it doesn't work that way. After waking up on Saturday with what Ted insisted on calling a "golfball-haunted throat", I graduated into full-blown cold as of Sunday. It's now Monday and I took the day off sick. However, since I have Tuesday and Wednesday off, I need a doctorb's note. I just hope I'm better by tomorrow. I don't want to be sick on days off!

Adrian's off for NY, and he probably won't blog while he's there because frankly, he has no drive. probably a nihilist or something.

Ted, Pete, and I had The Good Practice on Saturday, throat notwithstanding. We learned a new White Stripes song. We're slowly building a nice little repertoire. Never going to update the MySpace again, though, unless we can record something. *glares at Ted*

Oh, and for the first time in my life, I'm drinking tea. Yesterday it was chamomile with honey and lemon, and then I went to T2 and purchased some Vanilla Slice loose tea. I swore I'd never go down this road, but coffee just dried out my throat too much.

*sniff*

If anyone needs me, I'll be in Byron Bay.

Craig, hold my calls.

Musings

I took a different route to work today, and as usual when I do this, I found myself wondering: what if I just kept walking around looking at things and didn't go to work. I never got the urge to skip school at any time in my academic career, but I've had this sort of urge since I've begun working in Australia. There just seem to be so many interesting things to do and I just want to wander and see them. I don't know if it's sad, but a lot of those things revolve around food, wine, beer, and cocktails. Not the doing any of those things to excesses, but the enjoyment and interesting nature thereof. For example, I want more Innocent Bystander Shiraz Viognier. We had some and it was great, but I felt we rushed it a bit.

It seems I've become a magnet for gossip at work. Not the usual who-shagged-who gossip. More like oh-no-that-special-project-we're-working-on-is-ending-we-might-get-pwned-on-hours-and-supervisor-infighting-and-it's-all-coming-down-man gossip. It's giving me an unsettling sense of impermanence with everything I'm doing. I miss the illusion that managers know what they're doing and have things under control. And our back-of-house work has ceased being about quality of work lately and has just become a race to make your quota for the day. It's fair demoralising.

I stole a lobe off a cactus on the way to work today. I felt no guilt, as the cactus was about the size of a volkswagon, and I had no worry about storing it until i get home, knowing that succelents like cacti can survive for up to two weeks off the plant, then grow new roots. This particular cactus had no needles that I could see, so I had no trouble handling it. What I didn't realise is that its needles are 2-3 mms long, half the thickness of a hair and fall out on their own to coat what's nearby. In this particular case, what was nearby was the inside of my right sleeve. I spent the following half hour to work attempting to tweeze (with no tweezers) these little spines out of my wrist. They didn't hurt, but would twinge whenever they caught on something. Which was whenever I moved. So I got pwned by a plant.

Been listening to a lot of Spoon and the New Pornographers. Melodic power pop. Recommended, but not for Ted.

Tanja and I are about a third of the way through the 7th season of Star Trek TNG. Tanja's become a nerd to the point of discussing with someone at her work whether a colleague is a Ferengi or a Cardassian. I vote Cardassian. Oh, and I forgot how good the episode "Lower Decks" is.

Light from the heavens

I was struck with the strangest urge this morning. About a block from work I was suddenly and irrevocably hit with the need, NEED, mind you, to sit at home, drink Belgian beer (preferably from Delirium Tremens or Chimay), watch Mystery Science Theatre 3000 and play video games.

This urge struck with a force to stop me walking.

Keep in mind, this was at 7:42 in the morning.

*sigh*

Oh, and after her 14 days off work and 1 day back, Tanja has decided she wants to retire. Heh.

And when I got to work, my schedule was screwed. First I was put on 7 am starts this week (outside my availability, which starts at 8) but they've put me to work the weekend next week. Let me put it clearly: I don't work weekends!

Supervisor's sorting it out, but still.

Peterson's Champagne House Sparkling Pinot Noir.

Which has a bouquet that smells like dog. I'm serious.

See, now you're giving me the same looks that the guy at the cellar door did. It freaking does! Not like bad dog or wet dog. Just dog.

After a furious conversation with my better half in the car, I realised that it smelled like dog fur, specifically, the lanolin that is released when you brush a big dog, like a rottweiler or a golden lab. Which is a nice warm smell.

I'm not crazy. It's my palate, not his!

Back now.

Didn't blog everyday due to coin-op computers and a pile of high-school people at the hotel.

Went around Melbourne. Bought things (Star Trek and Simpsons DVDs, but NOT I may add cool wingtip shoes). Ate good food (and bad buffet food. We don't learn). Saw Tanja's sister. Saved Tanja's sister's boyfriend from Death By Tanja (he made light of her glass-ceiling-women-get-less-money-for-same-work coversation and nearly lost his left testicle. It was a thing). Took off with my camera for an afternoon and had a disastrous public transport experience (equivalent of trying to go from the city to Newtown and ending up in Emu Plains). Saw new Harry Potter film (meh). Slept in leaking waterbed at Tanja's sister's place. Watched my facial hair and fingernails grow as I had neglected razor and clippers. Flew home. Bought a book on the way back, which was odd.

Back to work on Wednesday. Well. I say work. Coaching role. So kind of work.

Melbourne, Day 2

Last night went to Melbourne's Italian street for some foodage. After the guy in the bottle shop recommending wine and a band called At The Drive-In (Ted, you'd like them), we went looking. Apparently competition is so great that the maitre d's of the restaurants have to stand outside trying to entice you in if you're walking past. God forbid you look at the menu. They start speaking Italian, offering to make you a special deal, it's wretched. I tried to explain to Tanja that if she lets me head butt just ONE, then it'll go through the grapevine and all the others will leave me the hell alone. “Oh, no. You don't want to mess with that guy.” Anywho, we had a fantastic meal. Tanja had linguine vongole (little clams) and I had rigatoni matriciana (bacon, spring onions, garlic and chili). Then after watching Die Another Day (even in another city, we can't stop watching James Bond), an unfitful night of sleep (the pillows are too flat), day two began.

With a breakfast buffet. Eggs under a hot light bulb, sawdust sausages and ersatz coffee.

Ew.

So we commiserated at Max Brenner chocolate cafe. We wandered up Flinders and Brunswick streets today. I was denied Rockabilly clothing (apparently I have too many clothes), we rode a tram, and then had a giant pizza. Each. I picked up the White Stripes Live Under Blackpool Lights DVD and Johnny Cash's American IV. Neato.
However, my poor Tanja seems to have caught something on the plane and isn't feeling well. So we're retiring early. I told her Jaegermeister would knock that out of her system, but no go. On to day 3!

Melbourne, Day 1

In Melbourne now. I've learned a few things. There are bars EVERYWHERE. Delis have bars. Cafes have bars. Even BARS have bars. Even, saints be praised, MYER has a bar in the basement. Oh, and everything interesting you want to see is ALWAYS on the other side of the street. And you never get back around to it.

It's good to be the King.

Behold. I managed to get just shy of $1500 worth of stuff for a mere $40. For I am Lucas, King of the Bargains. Grovel before my extremely well-priced might. And it was all perfectly legal. The boxed sets were on clearance in the cabinets, where no one bothered to look. Except me. Bwa ha ha.

Oh, and Tanja and I went to the Hunter Valley and picked up a ridiculous amount of wine. 5-and-a-bit cases. It doesn't all fit on the rack. We also had lovely relaxation time, impressive food and a spa bath. With bubbles.

Busy Week Continued (long posts bother me)

....so anyway, we went up to Katoomba on Friday, stayed in a scary motel (causing the following exchanges: Me: "How often do you think the train will go by? So often we won't even notice it?" and Tanja: "where's the alarm clock?" Me:"It's okay, I'm sure we can just get a wake up call... where's the phone? THERE'S NO PHONE!"), ate lovely food, and went to see Worth's band. Things I learned on this trip:
::Pokies are boring as shite.
::If you sneak up to see the band setting up, and find a taped-shut paper bag at an empty table, and then open it, and find a 1977 7" single of the Sex Pistols doing "God Save The Queen" and are guilted by Tanja into leaving it there in case it belongs to a band member, and then come back after the gig starts and find it again, you get to keep it!
::Some place have rum-and-coke on tap for $3 a glass. This is dangerous.
::If you know people in the band, you get invited to the afterparty!
::Cooper's is actually an ok beer after 8 rounds of rum-and-coke.
::Morning-after lunches turn into late second-breakfasts.
::French onion soup warms from the inside out.
::Motels come with free dead spiders.
::You should really return DVDs to Civic before you go away for the weekend.

Long time-y no update-y

Olympics over. Tanja and I went to Noosa. Ate much, got rained on a lot. Bought fancy pants. Got a tan. Back at TAFE. Stresses begun anew. Not looking forward to work on Wednesday.