christmas

Well, what does any self respecting blogger do on christmas day? an update of course :)
In case you're wondering why there hasn't been one in a while, it's not in fact the normal slackness, but something far far worse. I've become 'slightly' addicted to a website called Flickr. Now I originally joined flickr only to make it easier to publish a few photos on here, and I've ended up involved and addicted. Yesterday I spent the whole day on the site, from getting up very early until going to bed after 12, and only spent about 4 hours away from it. It's pretty cool, you post your stuff and other people start looking at it straight away, then you look around, seeing other people's stuff, getting inspired to create more (and inspired to finally buy a decent digital camera) and start to get into the community of it. Already some people like some of my shots and my photo stream has had 480+ views, all in the last month, which is more than this blog :)

Anyway, enough about me, what do YOU think of me? :)

This last week has also seen the end of the working year at Blah House, and the arrival of the Capers Christmas Party, an event worth attending. This year it was at Melbourne Park, in the conference rooms, which I normally only see during dance parties, so it's amusing to go there for work purposes :)

The party was pretty good, caught up with some people and danced with some others and moshed a bit to Killing Heidi, although I had to stop because not everyone was into it and it can get a bit dangerous :)

The party also featured outdoor activities such as rock climbing/abseiling, which seemed more and more dangerous as the day drew on and more alcohol was consumed, and there was also the opportunity to interact with some native fauna, such as a frilled neck lizard, some very cool stick insects, a couple of pythons and a crocodile, which I held for a bit, they are very smooth I understand the whole handbag thing now :)

Later on there was some further drinking and dancing, with visits to Yak (but didn't actually go inside), Honky Tonks (some minor Absinthe damage to my brain) and The Wine Bar (met Shaz and Becs and danced until it was time to go home)

Overall a very good day, with lots of variety :)

Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division - dihydrogen monoxide info

Also saw this which made me laugh out loud, pretty good for a text link off a photo website. If you've never done any chemistry you might not laugh as much. or for that matter if you are paranoid. :)

The "Battleship" for Richard

Been involved in my latest addiction, the Flickr website and found this which I know for a fact Richard will love, especially the story attached ;)
The "Battleship" on Flickr

film

Saw a very interesting film last night called I [heart] Huckabees. Very interesting indeed. Also quite funny and weird and confusing. I liked it a lot but am troubled to recommend it, as it really depends who you are and what you like. If you like linear films that progress from one point to the other then you probably don't want to see this, and if you like films where everything seems to make sense in the end then you probably don't want to see this either.

It is a good movie, with some very good performances and some genuinely unique funny moments. I dunno. Maybe go see it. or maybe hire it when it comes out on video.

bona fide mini weekend

spent far too much time this weekend in the boredom palace for it to be considered a full weekend so it's to be considered a mini weekend, but it was fun anyway. It officially started with lunch with the greatest human beings ever to walk the earth. I know that's limiting myself somewhat, as they are also greater than many non humans/non walkers, but I'm a big fan of amoeba so I'll have to leave it there. Of course there are some other great people in the world, but most of them don't read this blog so they can get stuffed :) The fine individuals are (of course) Shazzie and Berley, pictured here enjoying their various foods on the banks of the Yarra:

The rest of the day was spent at the house of drudge, with nothing of note happening except that we've moved locations in the building so the fact that I was late shift meant I finished work later than the movers and got to unpack all my stuff. yay.

Friday night was off to 3 Degrees for a quick game of beverage catchup and to meet up with Shaz D and Julie and co as there won't be any other chance to catch up with them before Christmas rolls itself over us ;) The night ended pretty early, managing to catch the last tram home with Joe after dropping by the dirty bird (KFC) and De Biers for one drink with Clare.

Saturday morning I was awoken by the incandescent Kate who had free tickets to a movie provided I could be at the cinema in one hour. Given that she had also just woke up I think it's pretty good that we both made it there with a few minutes to spare. The movie was Kinsey, the story of Alan Kinsey's struggle to research human sexuality in the 1940s. A very good film, starring Liam Neeson and Laura Linney and well worth watching.

Sunday arvo was pretty quiet, Teen's out of the house visiting the friends and family up Australia's Bush Capital (Canberra) so I was able to sprawl on the couch and watch crappy movies. Joe and Nick came over at one point to borrow a bunch of DVDs and drop off Nick's latest collection of Psy Trance music for me to 'archive'. Nick does a bit of travel around the world and is very into obscure Psy Trance, so he usually carries with him about 40-60 cds of the hardest meanest stuff around, so whenever he lands in AU we sample what he's got because we know it's going to be the cutting edge :) makes it real easy for us :)

Chairman of the bored

Another week of late shifts and therefore another week of boredom. There's only so much blogging and surfing you can do before you become completed addled.
Blah Blah Blah the end :)

The Wedding

Last weekend marked a monumental event on the social calendar that we all thought would never arrive: Mick and Steph’s wedding.

The weekend started with all the boys coming around to my place for some much needed relaxation, in the form of beer. It wasn’t a particularly huge night, as none of us were interested in having a massive hangover.

The big day itself started out pretty easy, we all woke refreshed and had our showers and watched some TV before heading up to the church to put some finishing touches on (flowers at the foot of the altar and ribbons on the ends of the pews) then back to the flat with some lunch to get ready. As we all started to get suited up Mick was starting to show some nerves, blaming it a bit on last night’s pizza, but we had an inkling it was more than that :)

The ceremony itself was fairly standard, not the full blown all-singing-all-dancing affair, but it had a few nice readings and enough pomp and pageantry to make it clear you weren’t in Las Vegas. There was an amusing point just before the ceremony when we realised that the Father was calling Mick ‘Kevin’ (it’s his middle name) and Mick had to point it out to him so he didn’t call him Kevin all the way through. The Father did a pretty good job too, because there was about 10 times he had to say Michael instead on Kevin and he managed all of them. There was a point where he got upset at the photographer for breaking his concentration, but he had in fact told Mick about not having photos during that particular section and Mick forgot to pass on the good news :) anyway, it gave us all something to smile about and you could just feel everyone in the church slowly putting their cameras away ;)

After the ceremony was the obligatory milling around outside while the congratulations were given and the photos with family taken, then it’s off to the Museum for the rest of the photos (via Dan Murphy’s to pick up a slab)

Photos for the wedding party were, as mentioned, at the Museum. Not a bad site, as it has some modern architecture, some classic and some greenery in the exhibition gardens. We knew it must have been a good spot, because there were about 6 other weddings taking their photos there. I haven’t seen so many weddings since I used to work at The University of Melbourne (lots of wedding photos on the south lawn and in front of the 1888 building)

So the photos were fun, just the wedding party and those roped in to be drivers/photographers/videographers so we were mucking around and playing up and joking amongst ourselves, as the main stress part of the day was over as soon as Mick and Steph walked out of the church.

The weather had been looking bad in the morning, raining in the morning when we went up to the church and we were just thinking that if we got a few dry parts of the day we’d probably be ok. Little did we know that the weather was in fact going to be perfect from the time Steph walked out of her front door until after everyone had staggered home to their beds that evening. In fact the only thing that had been planned for the day that looked like it was going to go wrong were the Bonbonniere. The original plan was to have little bundles of lollies placed inside commemorative stubbie holders. The issue was that the stubbie holders hadn’t shown up on time, and the courier company seemed to have lost them, as nobody knew where they were. We weren’t too concerned about it, I mean everyone wants everything to be perfect, but there’s a point where you have to accept that some things don’t work out as you plan, and you don’t let it ruin your day. Besides, the courier company lost them, so once they were found the courier company can deliver them to every guest :)

After the photos we drove off to the hotel that the reception was being held (Rydges Richmond, just a 5 minute walk from my house) to await the moment of our ‘arrival’. Of course we can’t be seen to be arriving before the guests, but not everyone shows up on time, so the process is that we arrive and get put into a little room off to the side, where we can relax, have a drink, and make sure everything is ready for our official arrival at the reception. This is the lovely little illusion used by reception places the world over to help create the magic of a wedding. Of course one might expect the illusion to suffer a little if you have to walk past the transparent marquee where the reception is being held in order to get to the bridal party room. One might even expect the illusion to shatter of the bridal party room was also only separated from the reception marquee by a clear glass wall and a few meters. :) Not that we were too concerned about that, because it also allowed us to see clearly that in fact the stubbie holders had arrived! Not only that, but the hotel staff had put them together as Bonbonniere and placed them on the tables! We were so thrilled we were laughing and pointing. Of course only about three people outside of the bridal party knew what the hell we were laughing about, so we must have looked like a pack of maniacs. Especially when Katrina went and stole our ones off the bridal table so we could start using them. I’m not sure that too many bridal parties first priority at a wedding reception was to get a stubbie holder, I suspect that it is in fact unique ;)

I suppose I should introduce the Bridal party at some stage, so now’s as good a time as any. Firstly of course we have Steph Wahren nee Foreman (designated as B), and Michael Wahren (G) then we have Therese (MH), Usha (BM1), Sandy (BM2), Katrina (BM3), Dan (BM), Joe (GM1), Scott (me) (GM2), and Ian (GM3).

Now we’re pretty much all friends from way back (except for Ian (GM4) who is Mick’s brother in law, but by this stage we’d been drinking with him on a few occasions, so that still counts) so we’ve been having a good day just hanging out and mucking around. Therese had been doing a fabulous job all day with her responsibility for ensuring Steph was always at her best, happily getting up partway through the ceremony to make sure the dress wasn’t all bunched at Steph’s feet etc, and her husband Edmund had been working all day making sure everything else was just right and doing all the video work. Whereas I spent a lot of the day just hanging around and joking with Usha (BM1) and Sandy (BM2), which I always end up doing when were together since they are so much fun to hang out with. In fact, Sandy and Usha are very good friends with the incandescent Kate and when the three of them get together it’s usually a barrel of laughs (and monkeys, of course). So anyway, it’s largely due to the efforts of Therese that Steph looked gorgeous all day (not to mention the team of hairstylists, dress designers, makeup artists, tan appliers, manicurists, etc)

The reception was also a blast, with our entry to the sound of the bagpipes played by Steph’s dad, wailing out Scotland the Brave.

The staff at Rydges seemed to have our number pretty well, and supplied us with a very nice waiter (Monique) who plied us with alcohol all night, even to the point of bringing out mini-jugs of bourbon & coke for me as I was drinking my glasses faster than they could keep up ;) The food was also very nice, although I would have liked to try both choices of each of the three courses, as they all looked pretty good :)

The night wound on, with lots of activities to fill my time, dancing with Sandy and Usha, dancing with Kate, Dancing with just about anyone, catching up with Rose and Trudes and Helen and Kate and Felicite and Dean and Bec and everyone else who was there :) In contrast to my brother’s wedding a week earlier, where I ended up a little bored because I hardly knew anyone, this wedding was action packed because I seemed to know everyone (just about) so I know I didn’t get a chance to spend time with everyone I wanted to, and I could probably have been in that crowd for 2 weeks and not have spent enough time with everyone that I anted too, although if Monique was going to keep getting me drinks for that whole time I think I’d be in hospital eventually for liver failure.

The music was pretty good and the crowd was great and nobody really wanted it to end, so after the bouquet had been caught by some relative of Steph’s and the garter had been caught be me (had to elbow Joe out of the way) and the bride and groom had spent about an hour going around the circle (always seems to take ages) then a bunch of us headed off to Hubcap for a bit more of a dance. Felicite and Dean were very upset with us for not having brought them there before, but it’s hard to explain that it’s not a club we go to often, it’s just a handy little place near home that we sometimes stop in to. :) Anyway, danced a bit more, joked around a bit more, was there until the club shut at 1am and then walked the BMs back to Rydges and staggered home myself.

Sunday was another day again, with a BBQ around Mick and Stephs and some video watching and present opening, and then it was back home to clean up and get to bed.

Funny thing is, that when I got up to go to work today, it felt like a week had passed since I was last there, as there’d been so much fun and activity.

KK @ Clitus

One of the annual Christmas events is the Kris Kringle at Clitus avenue, which was held last night. We don’t hang out as much with this crew as we should, so it was really good to catch up with everyone. It was another good night, as nights at the Clitus house usually are, and there was any number of amusing presents handed out, many with a sexual theme, such as a porn video, soap on a rope with an unusual shape, pocket Kama Sutra, etc. But the all time best ever present was the large framed photo of himself that Winston gave Joe. We’re a pretty cynical bunch sometimes, but it was a joy to see the entire group of about 20 people lost in total laughter for literally five minutes, people wiping tears from their eyes and some unable to stand up because of the sheer cheesiness of the photo and the front of Winston to give it as a gift. :) makes me laugh even now just thinking about it. So if you’re looking for that perfect Christmas gift, look no further than a personally selected and hand signed print from The Winston Collection ;)

Music, Marriage, Bogans, Bowls and Burgers

Another big weekend unveils itself, with a few drinks on Friday in a very noise and annoying Yak bar, sidestep to Bambu for a change, quick stop at Icon for Joe’s brother Nick as he was interested in some loose women, but the cupboard was bare, so we decided to try and get in to the Earthcore after party down at he Prince of Wales in St Kilda. There was a bit of a queue at the door, but I killed the time by talking to our mate Boaz who works security at the POW, and by the time the rest of the guys got to the front of the queue I’d had a nice catch-up chat and didn’t technically have to queue at all :)

The gig was really good, with Simon Posford taking a very early set that just rocked big time, and then some other guy who was also pretty good :) I didn’t stay too long as I had to get up early the next day to go to my brother’s wedding, so I left aboout 2am, but it was a pretty good three hours of dancing anyway .

Saturday was the day of my brother’s wedding, so I drove down to my parent’s house in Rosebud and did a little computer support before heading off to the wedding. Cam, his groomsmen and Dad all had the full three piece suits in black, which made for some amusement later on when they were standing around in the heat waiting for Cindy and her bridesmaids to show up. The ceremony was very nice, with Cam and Cindy almost making it through without breaking into tears. There was also a very nice moment where Cam’s daughter Courtney (currently 7) was included in the ceremony, with both Cam and Cindy saying vows to her and presenting her with a ring of her own.

The reception was pretty good, set in a barn and sort of country & western themed, but in reality, given the number of mullets, the spit roast, and the one man band belting out the oz rock hits, it was really Bogan themed (Westies, Booners or Rednecks for those of you not from Melbourne) and despite the good food and well played music, it starts to get boring when the only people you know are your mum & dad, especially since dad ran out of jokes in 1965 and has been recycling ever since ;) but apart from a little boredom at the end for me it was a very good wedding, and everyone else seemed to enjoy themselves thoroughly.

Sunday afternoon was also a bit fun filled, with a trip down to the St Kilda Bowls club for a few ends and a few beers. Felicite and Dean invited us all down to have a few bowls and drink the cheap beer and a good time was had by all. It’s a very nice pastime if you haven’t tried it, lots of shade at each end, and a bit of fun with us all congratulating each other whenever we managed to actually play a good bowl. Given the amount of beer we drank (lots) and the amount of practice we’d had (none) I think we did ok, but maybe that was the beer talking :)

After bowling for a few hours, we strolled down the road and grabbed a really really good burger at the Gourmet Burger Co on Fitzroy st, which I recommend to all of you who like burgers, and went and sat down in the Catani gardens to eat our dinner and soak up the last few rays of the sun. The day ended for me at the Espy listening to a pretty good steel drum band and having a couple of beers top top off the day. I went home tired after sunset (very nice from the front room of the Espy) but the others kicked on, including Joe and Nick who even went on to Freebase at Seven nightclub.

Jules Verne and Shaun

Well, this weekend marked the annual journey to the centre of the earth, with the Earthcore carnival. Three days of music and frolics in the Victorian countryside, with some of the best local and international djs and musicians. We grabbed a couple of tents and the usual crew and headed for the hills on Saturday, for an overnight trip. Technically the festival had been going since Friday, with a lot of people having been there since Thursday, but there is such a thing as too much time dancing in the sun :) The trip up was pretty uneventful, your basic driving up the Hume with a slight detour, and we arrived about 2pm on Saturday and set up our little camp. Then we took a stroll through the stages to see what was going on and to check out where everything was. The layout was pretty much the same as last year, although the toilet block had an added trailer full of showers and also a set of trees with a mist sprinkler running all day to keep people cool (using reclaimed water)

The music was, of course, superb, although I got a bit trapped on the Hydra floor and had trouble going anywhere else. That means I missed 1200 mics and TISM, but it also means I saw GMS, Hallucinogen and Raja Ram, so that’s pretty good :) Danced my arse off as usual, spending most of the time from about 4pm Saturday until 12pm Sunday on the dance floor, with a few rest stops back at base camp. I also managed to avoid getting soaked by the water truck when it came to spray the dance floor and the dancers to keep the dust levels down. All in all a very good weekend was had by all, with about 6000 very happy earthcorers, give or take a few who went a bit too far :)

I went a little further than the normal Earthcore tradition of taking Monday off work and also took Tuesday off. So Monday night I went around to Kate’s house to watch my copy of Shaun of the Dead with Kate and her housemate Gill. I’m a big fan of that movie as I mentioned earlier and I think Kate and Gill are too now. Gill also went and got us some pizza from somewhere local, and it was pretty darn good. It was funny because when I arrived Kate asked me if I had noticed that Gill had gotten some dreadlocks, and I had to explain that I’d just come from the planet of the dreadlocks and hadn’t really noticed anything different with Gill (althouhg they do suit her I think) because I was used to every second person having dreads :)

The bulk of my Monday and Tuesday was spent playing Full Spectrum Warrior on the PC and watching a few movies, which I shan’t list here because I can’t remember what they were ;)