Where does time go….?

So this has probably been the worst stint of blog keeping ever, and I have several good excuses lined up! First is the omni-present GTA IV. This is the first game in ages that Ive played where I dont really feel the need to progres through the main story. Im walking aorund, buying clothes, helping passers by, and beating the be-jesus out of folks that cuss at me. Its just so fascinating to hang around one spot for a a few hours, see the weather change, the sun drop in the sky, over hear all the different conversations that go on…..etc… you get the idea. You can litterally waste hours and not do anything - its like a black hole of time! So thats one excuse down.

Excuse 2 - Ive been busy trying to sort out my car getting fixed. After much hassling via phone and beating my head against a wall, it looks like my car is finally being sorted out by the guy that hit it, on his insurance. I actually got a call from the repair shop today that I may have to drop my car in to them as early as tomorrow, so thats a weight off my mind. Got a poo-ey Hyundai Getz as a courtesy car, but hey….at least I GET a courtesy car.

Excuse 3, and this is probably the most prevalent one. We’ve been hugely pre-occupied with house inspections, getting a mortgage sorted and spending an-holy amount of time on real estate websites. The last 2 weekends have just been frittered away on walking for miles, investigating the surrounding areas and attending house inspections around the clock. Its been both physically, and mentally exhausting. Every place we’ve seen so far fails to tick all of the right boxes. They either have no carspace, no outdoor area, have a poor kitchen, have no character, are too expensive or have all kinds of weird and wonderful rules and regulations that inhibit buying them. We saw 7 last weekend, saw 6 this weekend, already got 2 lined up for midweek and am waiting to see what crops up next weekend. Saying that, we’ve both got our heads screwed on and are not settling for anything less than…well…..what we want.

So there you have it, 3 perfectly reasonable, legitimate excuses. Its not just blogging that has suffered though. Weve got a crapload of downlaoded TV, and recorded TV that we just havent had time to see yet. Not been for a relax on teh beach in a while either. Im just thankful that excuse 1 serves as a bit of escapism from excuse 2 and 3, or I’d be going mad right now! Saying that Ive just watched Match of the Day, and its been some of the most thrilling TV Ive seen in a while. Been a great Premiership this season, with it going right down to the wire. I just wish some of the Aussies here could have seen it, to ween them off the crapness of gAy.F.L.

Be Kind, Rewind and Stuff

Once again, sorry for the tardiness of this post. Yesterday I was shockingly tired from badminton and today has been pretty busy. Had a bunch of stuff to sort out at work, and had a meeting with a mortgage guy right after work. The short story is that we CAN get a mortgage for the range of house prices we’re after (in fact we could get a loan for nearly DOUBLE what we want!) and its more a matter of how much we can afford to pay each week/month than how much can we get a loan for. The options open to us are both vast and complicated, but the guy did show us a scenario in which it could be possible for us to repay our mortgage in 10 years! Shocking, but all his sums seemed right - will have to give it some serious thought.

 

Secondly, we went to our local cinema which is the George theatre on Fitzroy St. Its a nice litle 3 screen cinema with a bar, hot drinks and cakes, so will soon become our cinema of choice I reckon. No annoying kids, lots of beer and cuppa’s! We decided to go see Be Kind, Rewind starring Jack Black, Mos Def and Danny Glover. Its basically a film about 2 guys who accidentally erase all the videos in their store and remake them all themselves. Now, Im not generally a fan of Jack Black, but he’s not too overbearing in this perfectly amusing, popcorn movie. Its not going to reinvent the wheel, or cause a big stir, but its good at what it does, with the Ghosbusters remake being my favourite (especially the whole “how do we shoot it at night” scene!). Gets a bit cheesy at the end, but like I said, it does what it says on the tin admirably. If you want to see a light hearted, charming, throwaway comedy, you could do worse than see this film. 7/10.

 

Not much else gone on. Not got to play Xbox for a couple of days due to tiredness and lack of time, but should hopefully sort that out tomorrow. Really getting back into it in a big way now, after a short hiatus playing solely on Wii, thanks in no small part to Burnout and Battlefield Bad Company. Ive even gone as far into planning ot get back into COD 4 online, once the BF:BC beta ends in a few weeks. Ah, on second thoughts, that will only be a couple of days before GTA 4, and I can see that eating up a lot of my time, so maybe I’ll give COD another go this week.

 

Plans for the rest of the week….nowt for tomorow (except aforementioned gaming), Thursday we’ll be off out for Birthday food, and Friday we’re having a a few drinks with the guy who’s training me at work then off to a gig (CSS at the Prince Bandroom). For once a busy week, full of excitement, thrills and beer! And me being a year older :o(

My New Babies! Oh, and something about a Grand Prix-thing???

So, as you can see, Ive changed things around a bit. I was getting a bit bored of the old look, and it felt a bit “Windows-ey” so Ive gone with this theme. I think it looks more fresh, and clean, but post a comment if you think otherwise, or have problems with it. 

I’ll also have to apologise for the lack of posts over the past 2 days. On Friday (you may or may not be aware) we were celebrating Becca getting a job! Wooo hooo! Working at a lab over in Clayton (East Melbourne) doing science (though not with GLADOS - sorry nerd reference). She is starting next week I think, but will know more details soon. So, to toast this news, we went out to a fabulous restaurant, right on the sea front, and managed to get a seat on the balcony overlooking the setting sun - it was lovely. And Im not sorry to say that the food matched the view - it was bloody stunning, and I reckon we’ll be going there revisiting it extremely soon. Strawberry and apple crumble topped with macadamia nuts - yum!

Saturday was spent in and around St Kilda at house inspections. We visited some really nice places, and one, which was simply stunning. Right on Marine Parade (sea front) with huge rooms, walk in robes and a patio with doors from the front room AND the bedroom. However, it was a bit out our price range, but its not hurting anyone to have a nose around.Today was driving lesson (last one before my test!) and more house inspections. The one we went to today was a really nice unit, with a massive amount of storage a great bathroom and a really nice kitchen but wasnt really in a great area. Much further from the beach than Id like, but at least we know what else is around.  After that, I went down to the beach to catch the flypasts by several FA18’s fighter jets and a rather low flying Qantas 747 - was mighty impressive, but what the photos (on facebook and webspace, page “oz photos 4″) dont show is the noise, speed, and just how low these things were. Like I say, impressive. The Grand Prix itself has been pretty good from our pespective, although I dare say if I lived up in Albert park itself I probably wouldnt say the same. Lots of eurotrash hanging around, dressed in awful, ill fitting clothes and being brash and noisy. Despite us being about a mile from the circuit itself, the noise coming from there was pretty loud. We were both really surprised at just how much we could hear the cars bombing around. 

Finally, a quick game update. Metroid 3 is damn good, feeling atmospheric and tense. The control scheme takes some getting used to, but once you adapt to how unusual it is, it becomes second nature. Much more like using keyboard and mouse than a standard console controller. I just cant help wonder how much grander it would have felt if the Wii had a bit more grunt under the bonnet.  Some moments are just aching for more grandiose graphics and effects, but on the whole its a great game. More details to follow - Im only just off the 1st level. Frontlines again, is a good game. The presentation isnt anything spectacular but it has solid gameplay. The FPS aspect of it is never going to challenge COD4 or Halo 3, but there are a few aspects where it excels. The open ended levels are truly opened ended, with more than just 1 avenue of attack, and multiple choices on how to tackle the same objective. The other area that plays out well is the variety in the gameplay. You can run around on foot, get in a  tank, a helo, a plane, or just hide in a corner and control a plethora of RC tanks and helo’s to shoot, missile or just kamikaze the enemy.  Single player seems short, but I guess its just a warm up for the multiplayer, which I havent tried yet. I think I’ll get myself proficient with everything before taking it online. Oh, and Im still slugging through the rest of the levels in Mario Galaxy. I cant seem to put it down, despite having “finished” it. 

The week ahead is not shaping it too badly. Going to the Melbourne Comedy Festival Gala on Wednesday night, Becca should start her new job next week, and its Easter weekend coming up. I think I’ll be working it, but only if the company want to pay for taxi’s there and back - no buses up there on public holidays.  Then its driving test next week - gulp! Been 40 degrees today, and the forecast for tomorrow is 39 - damn its hot - first time I’ll ever be going to work in shorts! 

Less Ache. More Mario. More House.

Well for once, a fair amount has happened since my last post. On Saturday, we spent most of the day in and around St Kilda, looking for houses, and going to inspections. Its all good practice for when we do come to buy a place, and it also gives us more of a feel for which areas are good, bad or indifferent. Went to a lovely place on the seafront that is within our price range, but it (and nearly all of the places we visited) all have their auction dates pretty soon, so we probably wont be able to bid. However, thats not the point of the exercise. What is heartening is that the sellers seem to be getting jittery about a the poor market conditions, and are knocking money off properties. Im sure when we looked a few weeks ago there was very little in our price range, but now theres a ton of stuff. All nice 2 bedroom properties in decent suburbs, and most of them would be up for consideration, had we the finances to bid. Its what we’ve sent most of today doing too, taking in 3 properties in the area. Very nice. Although its been 35 degrees hot so walking around has been energy sapping. 

Went round a mates house from work yesterday after our house hunting, for a few drinks and a meal. It was all very sophisti-ma-cated with high brow banter and everything. Very posh! Had some nice wine and some tasty beer and got to give his dog a fuss. Didnt drink too much though as I knew I had to be up early for my driving lesson this morning. All went well, which is good as I thought I may have been a bit rusty after no lessons for 2 weeks. To be brutally honest it was a bit boring. We just drove around for 90 minutes, not really learning anything. i shouldnt moan really, as its all good practice for my actual test. 

Played a  lot more Mario Galaxy today and it really is one of my favourite games of the past few years. Its just so much fun, its really addictive and you always want to see whats on the next level. Its unabashed merriment and I dont care if its seen as a bit childish. I think ive pretty much had it for now with realism in games. Fun is where its at, and as such, I’ll probably take my Brothers advice and buy Beautiful Katamari for 360 too. No bloody deaths, no “gritty urban environments”, no frustration, no “fiendishly clever A.I.” just pure unadulterated fun. 

Plans for the week…..I was going to go into work tomorrow but after looking at the bus timetables, I find that there is NO publice trasnport going anywhere near Boeing, so Im going to have to give it a miss. Maybe next public holiday, if they want me to work, they can pay for a taxi - we’ll see. Not sure what we will get up to tomorrow though. Becca goes to her volounteer work on Tuesday, Ive got more badminton on that day too, Wednesday we’re seeing Maximo Park, Thursday Ive got off, got a haircut and got my hazard perception test. Crook has a job interview (fingers crossed), then and Friday the chaps from work have a social thing going on in Port Melbourne so will get to meet some more people from work.  After that, its another solid weekend of inspections - should be really good. Ive thoroughly enjoyed this weekend, as its always good to look round other peoples places! 

As a parting shot, have a look at this video. Thanks to B3ta for bringing it to my attention, and for making me laugh my arse off at it! Enjoy! 

Aching. Badminton. Houses. Mario.

No prizes for noticing I didnt post last night, because as anticipated I was VERY tired after badminton. Id forgotten how much of a physical workout playing is. I was sweating as much, if not more, then 30 mins on a treadmill, and this was a LOT more fun. The guy I played with was probably on an even footing with my skills, which made for a really enjoyable match. My past 2 badminton partners have been either poor or outstanding, so this was much better. The place where we went to play was huge, and mighty impressive. Custom built for when Melbourne hosted the commonwealth games. I felt really invigorated after our game, but that quickly turned to tiredness, and aching. I still feel achy, and I reckon it will be worse tomorrow, but you have to go through this every time you let exercise slip and start it up again. Hopefully next weeks game won be so bad. 

This weekend we’re starting the whole house search thing off, in a big way. Got almost full days of viewing for tomorrow, Sunday and even stretching into next weekend. There are a lot more properties to have a look at if you want to go for 1 bedroom places, and while the some of them may not be what we’re after, it gives us a good idea of what to expect. Sunday will be my penultimate driving lesson before my test (unless I am REALLY rusty after a 2 weeks away from it). Scary. Only 17 days to go. Booked my hazard perception test booked for this coming Thursday too.

I was going to have Monday off as its a public holiday here (Labour Day) but I dont really feel the need for a day off, and they need help getting stuff sorted (and overtime rates all day will be nice!) so Im going in, and having Thursday off instead. Got a late night at a gig on Wednesday night, and as I mentioned, my hazard perception test is on Thursday afternoon and I need a haircut too, so its going to be a useful day off. And Im looking forward to a lounge about the house too.

Still loving Super Mario Galaxy. It is so nice just to listen to jolly happy tunes, watching bright green grass and blue skies roll past the foreground. Its just so much fun and brings memories back of the first time we played Sonic the Hedgehog on the Megadrive. Who’d have thought I wouldnt even touch my 360 for a whole week!  

I may not post tomorrow night as we’ve been invited around the house of one of my colleagues at work. A very dry, and amusing Scot who lives just up the coast in Albert Park. Should be a good night, with beer consumed, so I’ll post on Sunday night instead. Have fun!

Cars and Houses

Ok, work has been good and enjoyable. Weather has been hot and lovely. Done!

The Motorshow yesterday was really good. Nowhere near as huge as the one that I used to go to at the NEC but pretty decent non-the-less. Lots of old antique cars from 100 years ago to modern day stuff, and of course the main hall with all the current/future range of cars. Cars of note (and you can see them on Facebook/webspace) include the Fiat 500 (which I had to forcibly remove Becca from!), the Lexus that reverse parks itself, the Hyundai concept coupe, Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart, the Mazda MX-5 (but only cos it hopefully, going to be my new car) and my favourite car there, the Maserati Gran Turismo. It had that thing that thats pretty rare in car design, a sense of raw power coupled with elegance and sophistication. No footballer Ferrari nonsense, all brash and cock-like. If only money werent an object, it would be mine! I think Becca is now 100% convinced that the Fiat 500 is for her, and to be honest, it was a great little car. Surprisingly roomy inside and the interior is a lovely place to be. I had a nice time sitting in the Mazda MX-5 and pressing buttons and stuff. Plenty of headroom, and leg room which were the 2 things I was concious about but it really isnt an issue. Overall, it was a great evening, and we topped it all with gourmet fish and chips back in St Kilda. Yum!

Today, we made an appointment to speak to a mortgage advisor at the local estate agents just to run some ideas past him, get a feel for how things lie right now, and to find out about the mortgage application process. The short story on all 3 fronts is that the market on the whole IS slowing down, but the inner suburbs, like St Kilda are much less effected than rural sites. However, on my money alone, we cant afford to get a mortgage for any property around here, so we have no choice but to wait until Becca is employed. And as far as the process of application process goes, it all seems pretty straighforward. I  ran our idea of renting for a year past him and he advised agasint it. We would be spending over $25,000 a year on rent, which is effectively dead money, plus we would loose out on the natural increase in house prices which in St Kilda is about 15% per year, so after 1 year of renting we would be nearly $80,000 down, so its time to knock that idea on the head. The one option he mentioned is to try and get a large 1 bedroom place, preferably art deco design, as they retain their value more. Plus he said its pretty easy to pick up a place that has 1 bedroom, and has living space AND a seprate dining area, which could easily be turned into a study/office/games room. This would be ideal for us, as we wouldnt use the potential of a 2nd bedroom, and its really no bother for us to live as we are now, with 1 bedroom. At the end of the day, it comes down to a compromise. We can get a 2 bedroom place in a shit area, or have to live frugally to afford the mortgage payments in St Kilda, OR get a 1 bed place in St Kilda and live comfortably. We both agree that the latter suits our lifestyle much more than the 1st option. A decent 1 bed place is $400k maximum, compared to a decent 2 bed place which goes for $550k upwards, so we’re going to keep our eyes peeled. 

Again, there may not be another post tomorrow as Im going straight from work to have a game of badminton with one of the other new engineers that started the same time as me. Should be good, and am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. I havent played in over 14 months so Im expecting to be rusty, and very achy!  

The Mega-post!!!

Right - if you get bored easily, dont bother with this post. Ive got 2 days of catching up to do so its going to be a long slog until the end of the post. Firstly, the boring stuff. Work has been good, with it getting a little busier every day so I hope it doesnt reach melting point soon. Either way, at the moment, Im actually enjoying going to work. The weather is fantastic here at the moment too, with it being 28 degrees today and its due to peak tomorrow at 32 degrees. Mad when you think it is now the equivalent of being September in the northern hemisphere. I dont ever remember it being 32 in September in the UK. 

Right, now thats out of the way I can write about other things that we’ve been doing/mulling over. Yesterday, we went into Prahran to have a look about and just to get a change of scenery from Melbourne, and really enjoyed it. Popped into a great antique/vintage shop and saw many millions of dollars of stuff that we wanted, and things that bought a tear to the eye, as fond childhood memories came flooding back. They had a pristine, mint condition boxed Starbird, in all its sound-effect and lightshow glory. You remember that Andy? Even had the little detachable ships on each wing - awesome! On our way around, I picked up some HD leads for my Wii and 360, as well as Super Mario Galaxy, but more on that later. We managed to abstain from blowing  a small fortune in the Playboy shop, as Becca found some great looking baby-doll style heeled slippers, and I saw a great looking suit. Both far too expensive though. Settled for tapas on our way home from the restaurant just up the road, which was damn nice. I usually measure the quality of a tapas joint by the tastyness of its patatas bravas, and this place didnt disappoint - an 8/10! 

Before we visited “Pu-ran” yesterday, we decided to go and have a look at an inspection, pre-auction on a property thats next door to us, and in our price range. Thought it would be good to experience just what we’ll have to go through in a few months time.  This is the property (dont forget to click the links Mom!) we went to see, which looks huge on the photos, but seemed smaller in real life but the view was more spectacular in the flesh. We had a look at the penthouse suite in the same building as it was avaiable for rent (but quite pricey) and it was lovely. Built in robes, an even better view, big bedrooms and a nice bathroom. Trying to make an appointment to see another unit tomorrow too, just to have a “stickybeak”! Good to have a nose and see what we should be expecting even if we arent in the market right now. I went back to that place up for sale this morning to sit in on the actual auction. It was a pretty slow affair and seemed like trying to get blood from a stone for the auctioneer, as nobody really wanted to pay a lot. The opening bid was for the asking price of $510k, and it finally crept for $530k, which isnt too bad for a property with that view. We’ve spent a lot of today mulling over our options, trying to predict market conditions, should be rent for a year, how much is it going to cost us to get furniture, beds, appliances etc….. and we havent really got anywhere. Renting and buying right now, have so many pluses and minuses for and against each option, and as such its like hitting your head against a wall. In the end, we decided the best thing for us to do was…..wait. We’re in this place until July, we need exchange rates to improve, we need interest rates to drop and more properties to appear on the market. We can continue to monitor whats going on without making a rash decision that will end up costing us in the long run. The property market here, and the economy, cant carry on at the levels they are right now, so its got to slow down, or burst pretty soon. We just have to wait until then and jump in!

Right, onto games. Despite it being a bumper period for games in general, with a crapload of A+++ games being released, and another quality period around the corner, Ive been getting slightly sick of it all. Bored of killing people in Assassins Creed. Killing more folks in Halo 3. Killing more folks in COD4. Killing more folks in Mass Effect. Killing more folks in Tomb Raider Anniversary. I know theyre all very different games, but I cant help feeling theyre all quite generic when considered as a whole. All are very realistic, all are very tense games and all are fiercly competitive. I feel like Ive been playing them because theyre there, rather than playing them for enjoyment, or escape. Its been fun for a while, but that fun has turned into monotony, and Ive not looked forward to switching my 360 on for a week or so.  So that has ended now and after reading countless rave reviews I bought Super Mario Galaxy, and the found the reviews were not wong. Its bloody fantastic! Really does get back to the roots of what makes a good game. Its not realistic, its not gritty, its not got lifelike textures and environments. In its place is escapism, fun, colourful, no-stress adorable gaming at its best. Even the way Mario runs put a smile on my face! If youre sick of the whole generic real-world, shoot/stab-em-up style of gaming that infests every weeks release schedule, I urge you to try this. Its bloody amazing! As a result of this I intend to change my whole perspective on buying games. Ever since 360 was released, I tended to buy a game I was fairly interested in on its release day, rather than if I actually WANTED to buy it. For instance, in the coming weeks theres Army of Two, Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 and a couple of others that I acant remember which were orignally must buy games for me. On reflection, “post Mario”, I really cant be arsed with any of them. Theyre just more of the same generic gubbins I mentioned before, so I’ll be leaving them well alone. Hopefully, I’ll be able to hunt out some original, fun games to get on with instead. 

Ive also realised that I am far more into driving games than I thought. Forza 2,  PGR 4 and DIRT have all really got “my motor running” (pun intended) and I just want more of them, especially with the steering wheel setup. As a result of this, I may be about to commit a terrible, terrible sin. Well, at least in the eyes of UK Resistance (and possibly my Brother). Playstation 3. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Force Feedback Wheel. Three items which have me considering a purchase of Sony’s George Foreman grill. I knew I would end up getting one at some point, for God of War 3, maybe Singstar for Becca, and Little Big Planet also looks pretty special. However, I dont realy want to get one before the control pad has rumble reinstated so I wont be buying one immediately. I dare say I’ll be even  more keen to buy one in a few days as I intend to visit the Melbourne Motorshow on Tuesday evening, which is joint sponsored by GT5, and has demo units galore inside. If it actually plays half as good as the videos Im seeing, it will be very hard to try and persuade me not to buy one! 

And on the subject of buying things, my mind is thrown into even more confusion by news of this game. Battlefield Heroes. While it may just seem like a WW2 Team Fortress ripoff, it looks superb. I can tell you I played Battlefield 1942 more than any other videogame before it, or since, so the prospect of a highly styled, great looking, FREE update of it sounds ace. Only problem is, its PC only. No Mac, no 360. If I buy a MacBook Air, it wont be powerful enough to run it. A MacBook Pro will easily powerful enough, but I aesthetically, it looks like a crock of shit, and has the ugliest keyboard Ive seen in a long time. I know aesthetics arent everything, but they are if youre me and use your laptop every day of the year.  However, there are distant rumours of the next MacBook Pro update in June, which will hopefully make it look prettier too. If this happens, Im quids in, but if they dont, I dont know where I stand. I guess, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it I suppose, but up until then, its yet another waiting game. 

So there ends the largest post Ive made yet. Its taken me over 45 minutes to type, and is currently at 1493 words. Jesus! I wrote University essays shorter than this! Dont fret though, normal service shall resume tomorrow.  Now, its time for Match of the Day, and a beer…….

You Thought I was Indecisive Yeterday……!

Yes, more indecision Im afraid. This time on the subject of houses. We’re having a real good think about buying right now. Interest rates are nearly 8% and due to rise at least another 2 times in the next few months, and the economy is kind of going crazy. Houses are about $500 000 and rising, and Becca doesnt have a job yet. All of this means that if we want a mortgage, 70% of my wage will be going towards its payment each week, and thats not taking into account the imminent interest rate hikes. There are already record numbers of houses being repossessed countrywide as folks cant keep up with the payments. So we’re thinking of maybe renting a place for a year to let the market settle. This way, we wont be so crippled by payments each week (renting means only spending 50% of my wage each week which means I can bung the rest in a savings account and benefit from the high interest rates), it means that if we buy in a years time, I will be working on afternoons, as discussed in previous posts and as such, have a premium loading on my wage. Becca will have a job, and we will have had a years of UK house sale money in an account too. However, it does mean that we run the risk of the housing market rising even more, but on the other hand, the bubble might burst and things may slow down. Everything is a risk at the moment and it feels like standing on a 100ft pole, and everywhere you turn has its pitfalls. Will have to give it some serious consideration over the next few weeks and actually have to do proper grown up things like keep track of interest rates and the like. We’re in no rush anyway as we’ve got this place until the end of June, so thats plenty of time to think. 

Anyway, enough of financial gubbins. Its been pretty poor here today weather wise. Last night it chucked it down and we had REALLY strong winds.  Bits of palm trees everywhere this morning. Never the less, we headed off into the CBD today to pick up some things for work, namely stationary and other sundry type things. Nothing spectacular to report. Oh, tell a lie, there is. Managed to get my first hands on with a MacBook Air today and was really impressed. I know all about how thin it is, fitting in an envelope and all the PR stuff, but to actually hold it and press its buttons its a truly differnet experience. Its SOOOO thin and extremely light too. Screen looks nice and the touchpad is huge. If youre near an Apple shop, you owe it to yourself to pop in and just look at the Air.

Thats about it Im afraid! We hired out Black Sheep to watch a bit later as its crap on the box (review to follow!), got a driving lesson first thing tomorrow, and then off to see Priscilla at the theatre. Ive posted the photos I took over the past few days at the usual places too. However, Ive omitted a couple of photos as theyre worthy of their own posts, so look out for them over the next few days!

Ch..Ch..Ch…Ch…Changes!

I still cant get used to Melbourne weather. Fact - yesterday had a high of 35ºC, was sunny ALL day, and was even measuring 29ºC outside at midnight. Fact - today was around 17ºC and drizzling all day! Really hard to get used to but I think everywhere had retained the heat inside from yesterday, so it wasnt cold at all in the factory. Speaking of which, its been a good day today as we actually got to experience a full working day with NO training. However, it was kind of scary that the parts we were checking today are going to end up on the end of a wing of a plane! Been really enjoyable, and look forward to more non-training related days. 

Enjoyed watching the Liverpool match today earlier today too. It was a real wrench though, as it was just about to kick off when I left for work, but I recorded it and have just finished watching it. Good result, and I hope they get through in a fortnights time.  Got the Arsenal match set to record tomorrow and am really looking forward to it - should be a great match for neutrals. Been up to nowt other than that - oh, played a bit more Gotham racing and really enjoyed it. The 3 lap race around the Nurburgring, in an old BMW M3, in teh tipping down rain was fantastic. Renewed my interest in the track, as Ive been virtually driving around it for nearly 5 years now. However, trying to drive the bikes using the wheel peripheral is bloody impossible, so I’ll just have to use the controller. 

Still unsure as to what new Mac I should get. With each week that goes by I wonder whether to wait for the inevitable MacBook Pro update, but I doubt I would use all its power all of the time, or just go for a MacBook Air now. One thing I do know is that trying to type on my existing MacBook when its 35ºC is almost unbearable - like some sort of thermal leg torture.  Plus, Im never going ot get a better time than now. No mortgage, no bills, no rates, no water/gas/electric supply to pay for and quite a significant wage coming in each week. SPeaking of which I havent a clue when we’ll apply for a mortgage as the papers today said that another interest rate hike is on the cards in the next few weeks. I just wish the economy here would crumble like the rest of the worlds. Exchange rates are crap (UK to AU) and a mortgage would be crippling. Everything just needs to slow down, before we take the plunge. Nevermind…..I can wait!

Houses, Cars, and Bjorn the Unicorn!

Been a pretty quiet, relaxed day today, which was lovely after my 1st week at work. I really do appreciate the weekends now Im earning a wage again. Woke up at 9.30am (bliss compared to 5:45am!), and had a mooch about until my driving lesson later on. Was a little rusty to start with after over a week away, but the prats on the roads didnt help. The amount of suicidal cyclists, cycling up the wrong side of the street in the road, and dopes not indicating when changing lanes were a pain, but whereas a few weeks back I would have panicked and flustered over them, I took it all in my stride and just got on with it. 

After that we popped into St Kilda to get the papers, have a wonder about, get some food in one of the cafes and just pootle around. Got back and spent the afternoon looking at houses (have a squizz at this one which I wish we could get in time - we could afford it but I need 3 payslips as proof of income and it will sell before then - boo hooo!), calculating what mortgage we could get, looking at cars, and seeing whether it could pay for me to lease a car through work rather than buying one. 

I also decided to dispell the hype and finally got round to playing Peggle today….and Im hooked. Its strange, cos you dont actually DO anything, but its both addictive and relaxing at the same time. Id recommend it to anyone as it can be played casually too. I was going to buy it but did a quick search and found that its coming to Xbox Live soon, so I will get it then. So there you go, for as much as I have a go at Becca for playing Jewel Quest on her phone when we have a Wii, PS2, 360, DS, etc…. I also  spent the afternoon playing a game thats basically pachinko!  Ach….I dont care - try it out and you’ll probably be as addicted as I am!

St Kilda Festival tomorrow, so will be V-E-R-Y busy here. The TV news reckons over 400,000 folks will be coming here to sample the comedy, music, theatreworks and general “activities”. We’ll go in and see how busy it is, and how long we can tolerate it for. I think it sounds like a great idea….but 400,000 people in a place thats probably as big as Kings Heath seems a bit crazy for my liking!