wafblog v3.0

So, this will probably be the last post for the year. Not a lot time to reflect on the year that has passed, as I’m actually busy at the moment installing new wardrobes in our guest room to hold all our clothes. LOL.I think tomorrow we’ll be going out to the city to hopefully see the fireworks for NYE, which should be awesome as Mike’s never been before. I’m looking forward to it cos I haven’t been out to city in quite a few years.

So, like, last Friday week, I met up with Manda and Travis for ‘gift giving day’. They gave me the totally awesome Customisable Marvel Heroes Monopoly set.

You can see me here holding it up (=

So, other than that… 2006 has been a pretty good year. I will always be able to look back and say it was the year that I got Manda to come to the Easter Show AND Homebake. And lots of big ‘life’ things happened too. I finished uni, graduated, I’ve got a job lined up for the new year. Right now, I can happily say that just about every aspect of life is good. I think that’s all that you can really ask for at the end of a year – that you end it better than you started it.

I’d like to thank all my friends for their support and friendship throughout the year. I’m sure some of you didn’t even realise you were helping just be talking or meeting up or whatever. But you were, and I’m grateful for it. I hope I was able to do the same for you. Have a great New Year’s everyone, and all the best for 2007.

So, I went for my driving test yesterday and am happy to have passed! This means I can now drive on the road unaccompanied. I have been issuing everyone with a warning to stay off the roads now, and to avoid the area near where I live LOL. Still, after being on my L’s for 4 years it was nice to pass first time and I can now put up red P’s instead those crappy cardboard L plates. I doubt I’ll be doing much driving though – I have a bf who drives everywhere and I don’t tend to go out without him. And the only time I’d really have access to the car is on the weekends, but it’s still good to have the option I guess.

I don’t really remember what else I did last week. I had my work’s Christmas ‘picnic’ which due to the weather ended up being held in a pub. It was a nice pub, with pool tables in each room and lots of space to sit or stand. Definitely a good place for a party, so I’ll have to remember that for next time. Not sure that the hamper was worth $35, as we hardly ate half of what was in there – but it was better than having to bring our own food or cook anything. I met up with Mike for dinner afterwards, we ended up going to St. George Leagues Club, cos I joined ages ago but haven’t actually eaten there since joining. The food was ok, considering it was club food and we had a go on the pokies too. I only lost a $1! Considering my track record with pokies, this was pretty good. I must remember to play Wacky Walrus again next time :D

I spent Saturday having a much needed rest and practising my driving. On Sunday was Mike’s work picnic… which was rather boring. I kind of expected it to be as I didn’t really know anyone and there wasn’t much to do. Plus he ditched me to go play soccer so I was sitting by myself for an hour. Hum. Oh wells. After that we went to see Eragon. I’ve heard a lot about this book, penned by a 16 y.o. home-schooled boy, which is now set to become a trilogy (as all good fantasy novels are). I didn’t really have high expectations for it, I just knew that there were dragons in it and it looked pretty awesome. I wasn’t surprised then at the storyline or the outcome, nor the obvious set up for the next movie. The CGI dragons were pretty awesome though and it was definitely nice to see a fantasy movie that wasn’t part of a huge franchise with an already fanatic fanbase (a-la LOTR/Narnia). I’ve always wondered if they would make any of the Eddings books into movies, cos I’d love to see that, but this is probably as close as it gets without actually being D&D or something (which was awful from what I hear). So yeah, I was pleasantly surprised. John Malkovich always makes a good villain, I think it’s something to do with his voice – it’s so distinctive and he does the cold tone very well. If you’re a fantasy fan, I suggest you see it. If you’re not, I suggest you see it anyways :D Obviously, I’m biased because I love the fantasy genre in general, but I think the stories are universal and even if some of the dialogue is a bit dull you can forgive it when you see the dragon.

I am so tired. I’m literally just waiting for the Christmas break to get here so I can sleep and rest. Of course, I have bunches of housework to do, but still – I’ll be able to sleep in and that’s more than I can say for the last few weekends.

I think this birthday sort of just crept up on me, I wasn’t really prepared for it. Like, obviously I know when my birthday is but usually I’ll have it in my head and I’ll sort of ‘feel’ older I guess. This time I sort of turned around and there it was and now I’m 22 even though I don’t feel it. I wonder if you get to an age where it just goes past and doesn’t mean much anymore. Nevertheless, I did lots of birthday things. Went out to ‘lobster dinner’ with parents and Mike last Sunday week, which was yum… though we didn’t end up finishing everything. I met up with Manda for drinks on Thursday. We haven’t done that in a while and it’s nice to just sit and talk.

Oh yes, I saw ‘Casino Royale’ on Wednesday too, at a preview screening organised by my employment agency as a thankyou to the staff and clients. It was a well organised event, they had sandwiches beforehand and a small bag of snacks for everyone inside the cinema. I didn’t have very high expectations for the latest Bond movie. Probably because I remember Daniel Craig from his stint in “Tomb Raider” and honestly, it was pretty poor. Nevertheless, I was impressed. I’m glad they’ve decided to re-do the Bond franchise this way and make it slightly more realistic and more believable. Less reliance on gadgets is cool, although I did always enjoy those gadgets. And the cars…. but the Aston Martin in this one was awesome as always. The movie goes for 2.5 hours, but doesn’t drag at all. Plus, I enjoy watching poker games. There is one scene that was kind of brutal, but was done with enough comedy that I actually laughed despite the obvious pain of the character onscreen. I believe that was the desired effect (everyone else laughed…). So yes, I would recommend people go see it if they’re into the spy genre as I was pleasantly surprised and I’m sure others will be too.

As Mike was busy on thursday night, he planned a birthday outing for me for Friday. He wouldn’t tell me what we were doing, but I guess that’s half the fun. We went to City Tattersalls for a drink and a bite to eat after work. I haven’t been there before and there was this weird ‘the universe is acting oddly’ feeling because just the day before I had remarked to Manda that we should go to Tatts one day as I’d heard good things about it. Odd, I say. Very odd. Anyways, after that… we ended up going on a bit of a walkabout down George St. Mike had gotten tickets to the Whitlams concert (wooo!) at the Metro Theatre, but he didn’t actually know where it was. Suffice to say, we walked all the way down George St. and then had to walk back up (for me to discover we’d actually passed it the first time) LOL. It was a fun adventure anyways, although next time I’m just going to make him tell me what we’re doing :P The Whitlams were AWESOME. There were two guest bands (James Cooper and someone else…. the someone else was good, James Cooper wasn’t -_-) but I was just waiting for Tim to take the stage. It’s a shame they didn’t play Chunky Chunky Air Guitar as I think that’s a great song, but then I wasn’t really expecting them to. They played a few of their old songs, but mostly songs from their new album (which I didn’t even know had been released). I got a copy of the new album at the end and even had it autographed by Tim, along with my ticket. Yeay! Haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet, so can’t compare it to their other stuff.

I hadn’t actually been to the Metro before, and never to an over 18’s gig either. I really enjoyed it, although my feet were numb from standing up the whole night – that’s the price you pay I guess. In any case, Mike did a great job of organising the night out and surprising me (:

So after the late late night on Friday, we went paintballing with the graduates from RailCorp. We had to get up early on Saturday morning to be at Rouse Hill by 9am, and I must say we were practically deaded by the time we got there. Seeing as we’d been before, Mike and I thought it’d be a good idea to upgrade our guns. A $20 upgrade allows for accuracy up to 40m with a 8 ball/sec rate of fire. I thought that was reasonable enough. However, if you pay $40 you get accuracy to 80m and a 25 ball/sec rate of fire (apparently). This basically means you can shoot from one end of the field to the other… Not fun if you’re on the other team. Somehow, the teams ended up really skewed and my team was the more inexperienced so we got hammered pretty hard the whole day. My war wounds include a shot to the knee, thigh, wrist, upper arm and three shots to the back of the head. Joy. They’re bruising really nice at the moment. I really can’t complain as I signed up to play. However, next time I’m only playing if everyone is an amateur and uses crappy guns. Somehow those $40 upgrade guns hurt like 10 times more. I think it’s the velocity of the paintball, coupled with the fact that most of the ones that hit me didn’t burst on impact (which hurts MORE). I thought that after going to the gym for so many weeks I’d be fairly fit to play as well. I was wrong. It turned out to be really really hot on Saturday and added to my sleep-deprived state I pretty much died after lunch. I must also remember not to buy so many paintballs next time as well. We had so many left over we had to donate them to everyone just to get rid of them. Somehow, I had more fun pouring the paintballs on the ground and stomping on them than I did shooting them. Bit of an expensive habit though I must say.

After the fun and games, we went out to dinner at Ribs and Rumps at Manly. Food was ok, although maybe a little expensive compared to other ribs places. Not sure, just didn’t feel very impressed with the meal in general I guess. I think maybe I expect a certain level of service that just doesn’t seem to exist anymore. Or I’m going to all the wrong restaurants!

On Sunday, Mike and I went to a birthday party for Mike’s cousin’s daughter who is turning 4. It was a small beach party up at Gosford, with mainly family in attendance. There’s a mild sort of panic that sets in when you have to meet family of your partner. I guess it’s this sort of pressure that you have to impress and you worry they won’t like you or whatever. But then there’s this sort of thought that really, you’re not dating them and you’ll probably only have to see them once or twice a year anyways so even if they don’t like you it’s not the end of the world. Luckily, they were all really nice and I enjoyed myself. I was too sore to really do anything but sit though. It was quite amazing to see the amount of energy a 4 year old has, as well as how loudly a 5 year old can scream. I suppose that’s something for me to remember when I get older. Heh.

All in all, a very busy week! I feel somewhat ’stretched’ at the moment. I haven’t had any time to myself for like a month and no real time to rest. I feel somewhat pressured to keep going out and meeting up with people. Not that I don’t enjoy it, I do. Partly I think it’s because a few of the recent outings have left a little bit of a bitter taste in my mouth, for various reasons, and people complain to me about stuff like I have any control over those situations. Moreover, I’m sick of people guilt tripping me. Even if they don’t realise they’re doing it. It’s bloody easy to do it to me and whilst I may get pissed off about it, I will still feel like I let someone down or I should have done more or whatever. I feel bad for the things I was directly responsible for, and I apologise for those. Everything else, you’re on your own. Don’t have unrealistic expectations and then be upset when they aren’t met. I know that I’m not doing a very good job at balancing at the moment and there’s a lot of conflicting pressures and I’m feeling a lot that I have to choose between people and/or responsibilities. Really, it just pulls me apart at the seams. We’ll see, hopefully the 10 day break over Christmas and New Year will go some way towards resolving this.

The following song lyrics are for Mike. He knows why (=

If a boy had a chance
A chance with someone like you
Are you gonna break his heart?
Let him cry for the moon?
Are you hiding somewhere behind those eyes?

I just freeze
Everytime you see through me
And it’s all over you
Electric blue

On my knees
Help me, baby
Tell me, what can I do?
Electric blue

Oh, I had a dream
For a moment I believed it was true
Oh, I’d have given anything
Just to be there with you
Are you hiding
Somewhere behind those eyes?

I just freeze
Everytime you see through me
And it’s all over you
Electric blue

In too deep
Standing here waiting
As I’m breaking into
Electric blue
I can see
Can see that it may be just a vision for you
Electric blue

On my knees
Help me, baby
Tell me what can I do?
Electric blue
Icehouse – Electric Blue

So,

a big thankyou to everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday yesterday, I appreciate it very much. I did get an anonymous ‘Happy Birthday’ song on my voicemail at work, and I still haven’t worked out who left it – I hope they own up so I can thank them!

It’s kind of easy to guess who’s song I’ve picked this week. I had trouble deciding exactly which song to pick. I’m listening to Butterfly Effect’s album Imago. And I’m remembering which of these songs I heard live – and some of them grab me just as much as they did hearing them live. I really wish I had remembered to take a disposable camera, if just to have a few photos to remember the bands by. So, I’m tossing up between ‘The Aisles of White’, ‘Gone’ and ‘Reach’. ‘A Slow Descent’ is also good, but not *as* good, and I think ‘Reach’ is the one that I can most vividly recall. You know how some songs have chords that just sort of hook you in? It’s like that. There’s something about Clint’s voice, it’s haunting but soothing and kind of tortured. I think ‘Reach’ is more how I feel right now, but we’ll see.

Last night I dreamt I held you with me
Close enough to feel you breathe
When I awoke I lay here empty
Caught between the want and need Now in the darkness I am only
Thoughtful hopes and pieces mind
These dreams are all I’ve ever wanted
Found behind the closing eyes

How long we’ve been trying to reach you
We all fall down like this sometimes
Trying to reach you
I’m trying

Last night I dreamt I held you with me
Closer still to see you leave
When I awoke the fear of lonely
Gripped my heart in concious sleep

Now in the darkness I lay empty
Hollow beaten like a drum
Still water cages I am hoping
In these dreams to me you’ll come

These fields alive with fire and ashes
Inside these fields we’ll find oceans of ashes
When all your dreams have died
I don’t want to die

Just keep holding my hand because I’m trying to reach you
I’m never letting you go
Because I’m dying to keep you

I’m trying

I’m walking through your fields
Of broken flowers
They fall upon my face
Like tears for hours
If all we are we are
If all we are we are
To wake and call your name in the tiny hours
We all fall down
The Butterfly Effect – Reach

I’ll have to get photos off Travis to put up here. Hopefully in the next couple of days I’ll be able to do that. Still have to put up graduation photos as well.

So I had a draft again that I forgot to publish and have since done a bunch of other things so I don’t remember what I was going to write about. Oh wells. I really should stop doing that and just post stuff up as I write it. Sometimes though, it takes time to edit the post and make sure it makes sense and I’ve put in the stuff that I wanted.

Had a fairly busy weekend, although it’s nothing compared to how busy this week will be. The RAS Christmas Party was on Friday night. The new grads are invited as it gives us a chance to meet people in an informal setting, which is a great idea I think. It was fun, although I always feel a little out of place at those type of functions. I can never truly relax as I feel I’m being judged by people, which I probably am. You can never really let your hair down, and any ‘party’ is still work. You’re still networking and all that sort of thing. Still, it was enjoyable and I can’t complain about the free food or free booze :P I also got to catch up with Danny and Chez especially. They’re always fun to hang with (=

Went to Homebake on Saturday. It was the first time I’d ever been, so I was pretty excited and everything was like ‘awesome!’. The taxi driver kept mixing up the name, and he called it ‘The Big Bake’ which I thought was really neat. Mike and I got there a little late, so we had to wait in lines for ages… Manda wasn’t impressed ): But, we made it in time to see ‘Parkway Drive’ which was the first act we wanted to see anyways. Now, I’ve always been into moshing and the general ’slam dancing’, but I’ve never ever seen a circle pit or the whole ‘rush’ thing. Apparently it’s popular with more heavy metal type bands. I suppose ‘Parkway Drive’ are heavy enough for it. So anyways, the four of us were standing there waiting for the band and as soon as they started, everyone took like 4 steps back. We didn’t know what was going on, but were soon aware of the ‘crazy’ people in front of us running around in a circle in a somewhat erratic manner and then falling over the people who were standing around. I don’t really see how the circle pit can be much fun as it looks like you’re more likely to be trampled to death than anything else, but each to their own I guess. Maybe it’s more fun when you’re completely tanked on alcohol. Luckily, this was the only show that had one of these.

‘Parkway Drive’ played well and it was definitely good to hear some heavy music (= We stuck around for ‘Little Birdy’, which I hadn’t heard of, but Manda had. They were pretty awesome too. A little bit popsy, but the songs were catchy and kind of cute. Between the time they finished and we went to get food, it had turned overcast and was soon pouring down with rain. That was a bit of a dampener, although it didn’t dent my enthusiasm any. Heard a little bit of Toni Collette’s band in that time, but not enough to get a real feel for them. Plus I was cold and drenched at the time, so wasn’t really paying much attention. We did go to see ‘Butterfly Effect’ and luckily the rain had let up by then. I’d heard a few songs by them, and I expected they would be a good live act… I was totally blown away by them though. There was no stupid circle rush this time, and you could just stand there and totally enjoy the music. There were some idiots wearing ‘anti emo crew’ t-shirts that were pushing and shoving us from behind, but even that couldn’t ruin the performance. In some ways, this was probably my favourite band on the day. They were THAT good, and so much more than I had expected. I don’t know if I’d listen to their songs a lot (on the train or whatever), but certainly it’s given me a new appreciation for them anyways and I wouldn’t mind hearing their album in full. We were all pretty beat by the time they finished, and with it raining so much we decided to heat out of the venue in search of a bathroom and possibly some shelter. We ended up sitting (and sleeping) in Travis’ car for an hour while we waited for the rain to subside. That kind of didn’t happen. But I don’t think anything was really going to deter us from seeing ‘Eskimo Joe’ and then ’silverchair’. I’m not really a big ‘Eskimo Joe’ fan – the last (and first) song by them that I really liked was that sweater song, and they never play it anymore :P However, it turns out they play that ‘hello, hello’ song which I do like. And of course, I’ve heard Black Fingernails, Red Wine on the radio. There was another one that I recognised but I forget now. In any case, their music is easy to mosh to and generally likeable. Some of the slower stuff was a bit… hrm… but that might have been just because I wanted to mosh. Plus there was the fat dude in front of my who kept leaning back into me. I can’t really blame him thouigh, he was doing the same thing Mike was – protecting his girlfriend from crazy moshers. The rush at the end of the ‘Eskimo Joe’ set was pretty intense. The number of people trying to get out of the pit, combined with the number of people trying to get in meant that we were shoved around a lot and it was very rough. We ended up moving to the side to avoid the centre crush before ’silverchair’ took to the stage. Unfortunately, being short is a great disadvantage in these sorts of events, as everyone else is bound to be taller than you thus blocking your view of the stage. I jumped up a few times to catch a glimpse of Daniel Johns and later on Mike lifted me up a couple of times so I could see the stage for a bit. I should say that, silverchair are the reason I went to Homebake this year, and they are also the reason I managed to get Manda to come along. I guess I had high expectations for them and I was a little disappointed. Mainly because they played a lot of their new stuff, and I’m more of an ‘old school’ fan. After hearing them play their new songs, I’m unlikely to buy their new album. Considering this is one of the bands that got me through high school (yeay for angst!)… but you know, sometimes bands change their sound and that’s just where the creative forces are taking them. We ended up leaving the mosh pit before the end of the set, but once out, were able to see much more of the stage from the side. I was very very glad they played ‘Freak’, and there’s an awesome feeling you get when there’s like 10,000 people singing along to the song at the same time as you. It really is quite undescribable.

All in all, I’m really glad I went and it was an awesome experience. I got to see the bands that I wanted to see, and you can’t compare to seeing a band live. However, I’m not sure I’d go again unless the line-up had some really great bands in it. The crowds that the festival attracts, along with the paranoia of having to make sure you’re not getting rolled and won’t be pushed/shoved/elbowed/crushed in the pit can detract from the general experience. I’m fairly sure I only survived unscathed because I had people around to protect me. There’d need to be some really great bands to make me brave that again.