Australia Day Weekend 2008

Well another Australia Day long weekend has been and gone. And I pretty much spent the entire weekend doing classic cliche Australian activities. Not necessarily by design either, it just kinda happened that way.

The weekend started with a night of drinks at a mate from footy's house. This night included the classic Aussie night at a mate's elements of beer, pizza and sports. Both darts and Table Tennis were in full swing at stages and I pretty much sucked at both. Started well on the table tennis with Benny as a pairing and won our first match but then got soundly beaten about 4 times in a row after that. Mainly due to me I must say.

Saturday was a classic "get out into the sunshine" day and fittingly was done on Australia Day. Bee and Coline had organised a picnic and beach day for us and so we all piled into my car earlyish Saturday morning and headed off. Not caring where we ended up we just drove North and ended up deciding on Mooloolaba. Popping out of the car at Alexandra Headland we pulled up a piece of shade under a tree and laid out the goodies. Nice work on the preparations girls! Was awesome! A couple of hours of swimming and beaching later and we were ready for ice cream. Then the drive home. Great day even if I was pretty shattered at the end of it.

Sunday saw another reasonably hot Summer day arrive, which have been somewhat few and far between lately. It also saw me standing for long periods in the middle of Yeronga Football Club's Field #2 chasing a small piece of red leather around. Both my and the opposition's teams for 20/20 cricket were quiet short on players, meaning lots of gaps in the field. Dinner that night with a few of Bee's friends ended up with a night of board games and drinks (one of which I spilt all over the lounge room carpet near me) back at ours.

Monday we headed over to Dunc's for a "shed warming". How classicly cliche is sitting around in a backyard shed, watching cricket, playing pool while drinking beers and eating BBQ food can you get? Don't forget the obligatory cricket on the road with a plastic outdoor chair for stumps and the classic rules of not being allowed to put your beer down and one hand one bounce in effect.

All in all it was a pretty busy but awesome weekend. And as I've said lots of classic Aussie activities were performed. I feel that I've done my bit to celebrate my country's birthday with her and she blessed me with some classic Aussie weather for it.

Random Thoughts

Was sitting here trying to think about something to blog about. Basically couldn't come up with anything. Yes procrastination is a key survival technique for me these days. So what I thought was I'd just do a blog entry about random things happening or random thoughts that pop into my head. So off we go...

First major interest news, which most of you are no doubt already aware of, is that Bee has her first full time job. Group Leader of the toddlers room in a Childcare centre. Pretty exciting ground for her and for us. I say us because it will obviously increase the amount of funds available to us as a couple and potentially allow us to investigate new options for things. It'll be interesting to see how it pans out but I'm looking forward to having a bit more fluid funds where we can do spur of the moment fun things and impulse buys, things like that.

Also will be excited to watch Bee deal with full time work and watch her confidence grow as she goes through all the experiences associated with it. I remember what I was like pre-full time work and I must admit it's given me a lot more confidence and skills to be able get out there and live life in the real grown up world. Not that I'm implying Bee doesn't live in the grown up world now just that it is yet another stepping stone in the constantly evolving process that is life.

For those who haven't had the pleasure Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii is a cracker of a game. Blending all the classic Mario elements in a few fun filled 3D world with a bunch of new enemies, skills and items the game is outstanding. I had painfully built a big lead up over Benny in terms of how far we'd each progressed through the game but within a day of me being back at work I came home to find out he was well and truly in front. Two days into work and I was so far behind I was never going to catch him. Great game though and considering everyone babbles about the lack of graphics power on the Wii the game looks stunning, the soundtrack is also fantastic. If you have a Wii and you haven't played this game go get it and quick fast!

In terms of other leisure activities there has been some cracking sport on TV lately. I'm sure we're all aware of the drama in the cricket after the 2nd test and how exciting the 3rd test was. Sure we lost but it was a great match, just like the 2nd test, and shows that test match cricket is far from dead as some commentators would have had you believe post the Sri Lankan tests. The Australian Open tennis tournament has also been gripping in places. Some very high quality matches played and it actually inspired me to get up and play tennis on the weekend. I must admit most matches don't interest me but even if they don't if I sit and watch it long enough I find it drags me in and I can't switch it off.

Footy pre-season so far hasn't been quite as bad as I was expecting. I think that is largely a combination of me being a lot fitter for it this year over last year (my first) and also it hasn't been quite as hard. Until last night that is. With a lengthy running warm up and stride throughs followed by suicides and what was effectively a beep test without the scoring, it was a tough night. We've also been told that Thursday we need to bring our runners as we're off on a road run which will involve some hill sprints. Now I'm sure the long time readers of this blog remember what happened on the first road run with hill sprints last year to me...

I'm almost certainly going to apply for the Senior Unix Admin role here at Transport. I appreciate the comments Ben made about getting involved in management within Government and I agree with him largely, but there are a few things in it's favour. The money isn't bad but it'll be a change in my day to day here. What I've found in myself is I struggle to get motivated to apply for jobs elsewhere so why not change up what I do here if I'm going to be stuck here? It's not 100% management and I'll still be doing techo things but I'll be expected to get involved as a "team lead" techo guy. Which might get me away from some of the shitkicker work I do now as well as allowing me to get involved in decisions and plans for how things affect my team. It'll be interesting if I get the position how the job will actually turn out but I guess I can always get out of it if it doesn't turn out to be something I like.

Anyway I think I've babbled and bored you enough by now. Until next time good people!

Wii Injury

It was bound to happen. It was basically inevitable. So too is the feeling of embarrassment and stupidity accompanying it. What am I babbling about? Well I have my first reportable case of Wii injury. No I am not turning Scottish on you (well maybe just a wee bit), I have injured myself playing the Nintendo Wii.

Let me give you a minute to stop laughing...

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done yet? No? Ok then...

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... alright stop now!

My brother lent us his version of Mario vs Sonic @ The Olympics. In true Nintendo Olympic style (who doesn't remember the old Olympic button mashing offerings from Nintendo?) it requires furious and frantic use of the controllers and buttons to achieve perfection.

In the 100 metres sprint you have the nunchuk and the Wiimote. The basic concept is to flick the nunchuk and Wiimote up and down alternating between them to gain speed. The faster you flick them up and down, the faster your character sprints. After a number of sprints I started to sense pain in the outside of my right wrist, more sprinting and other events confirmed the pain.

Now do you need more time to get all the "I thought your wrists would be strong enough from years of use Mick?" jokes out of your system? No? We're good? Alright then on with the story...

... we had a hit of real life Tennis yesterday afternoon not long afterwards and the pain was still there. Of course when everyone ended up at our place after I couldn't resist another shot at it, I just had to beat Brad!, and sure enough more pain.

It feels ok this morning but when put under pressure it hurts a bit. I tell you what if the Wii didn't show you a Health and Safety warning every time you turned it on I'd be on the phone to my lawyer right now!

Hope I haven't done anything too bad or else I get the feeling footy training this week might test it out.

Damn Optus.

So a while ago I get this bill from Optus for my home phone account which was massive. It had like $90 worth of line rental on it. Belinda went ape and got on the phone. Turns out there had been some change to our plan/account/whatever and we were now paying $50ish line rental a month. And the $90 was because of the previous month's plus the new charges... or something... it was basically going to work itself out from what I remember.

Anyway I've finally had a gutful of that ridiculous line rental fee. So I had a look into their home phone plan options and there is a $49 capped plan with no line rental and a bunch of credit in it. Sounds awesome. So I ring them up in order to change it... this is basically how the conversation goes...

Me: Hi, I'd like to change my home phone plan please.
Optus dude: Sure, can I have your number... (etc etc)
Me: (I give him my details)
Optus: Ok I'm looking at your account now.
Me: I was looking at the $49 Anytime Cap plan for my phone, can you please change me to that?
Optus: No I can't. You're not on the Optus Direct network.
Me: What does that mean? Is that like my phone line is physically not plugged into the right network for that plan?
Optus: Yes.
Me: Okay, so how can I go about changing to that network?
Optus: You can't, Optus are in control of that.
Me: So Optus have to change me over?
Optus: Yes
Me: Can I request that they change me over?
Optus: No
Me: So there is absolutely nothing I can do to get changed over?
Optus: Not until Optus do something to start that process
Me: (biting my tongue from asking why the hell Optus would ever initiate a plan of action that saw me paying them less money when they could continue to screw me) Ok on the network I am on is there any cheaper cap plans I can change to?
Optus: You are on the cheapest plan for the amount of calls you are making.
Me: Ok thanks, goodbye
Optus: Is there anything else I can help you with today sir?
Me: (again with the tongue biting to stop myself from angrily saying "but you haven't helped me at all!") No thank you, goodbye.

So basically unless Optus themselves organise for me to get changed over I can't get a cheaper plan for my home phone. Raise your hand if you think they have a vested interest in ensuring I pay less and therefore will start it off?

Easing back into it.

Work so far has been a case of easing myself back into some semblance of productivity and motivation. Still can't quite believe how much it feels like I never had any time off, like nothing has changed. God damn this place for that!

I'm nipping off little bits and pieces here and there but am yet to try and take a serious chunk out of anything. Got a bunch of frivolous yet somehow terribly important service requests to get through. One of them is completely ridiculous, I advise not getting me started on that one.

So basically same old, same old. Trying to mentally adjust to having to be here as my mind is telling my body that it should be relaxing on a couch somewhere watching the cricket. Which reminds me I am yet to try and find someway of getting a score update through our stupid filtering... I'll find it somewhere...

Thankfully... and I can't believe I am saying this... pre-season training is on. What I found about footy training last year was it dramatically helped break up my week. With it being on Tuesday and Thursday nights I'd just convince myself I needed to survive until Tuesday afternoon and then again until Thursday afternoon. Helped nip the 5 day hanging out down to sizeable chunks. Of course then you'd do the training and rock up to work the next day, just like today, and feel drained. Which of course makes it harder to convince yourself you only have to survive two more days before you have to do it all again!

Thanks for the comments guys. Ben I too think an exciting, but most importantly different, job would be a big change up and help with motivation and enjoyment factors at work. So I'm opening it up to the floor... hit me with your suggestions! :)

Coline I'm not sure it's strength or a lack of motivation to do anything about it that explains why I'm still here. You'd think that how I feel about this place would motivate me to get out there more actively and apply for other jobs but in reality every time an opportunity comes up I'm so run down and mentally fatigued I just can't be arsed.

In other job related news there is a "Senior Unix Admin" job available and soon to be advertised in my team here. More money for me and maybe a slight change of focus to a more managerial role as well as my techo stuff. I think it comes with the associated lack of overtime pay though when going up to that pay level, but looking at the figures the increase in $$$ should account for the $$$ I get from overtime. Plus whenever I do overtime I get TOIL (Time Off In Lieu) instead of $$$. So basically I'd get more time off plus the same $$$ from the pay increase. Now to try and convince myself I care enough about this place to try and write the selection criteria responses...

The Dream is Over.

I sit here at my desk writing this with the realisation that the dream is well and truly over. I said it last night to Benny and Bee but it is only just really starting to hit home that it's gone.

"What Dream?" I hear you ask. Well the great Mick dream of sleeping in every day, doing what I want whenever I want, and letting myself remain completely switched off and relaxed while still getting paid and being able to afford stuff.

For those who are unaware I have returned to work for the first time since the 19th of December 2007. I had organised for a few weeks leave starting the 24th December but on the night of the 19th I got sick and never got a chance to go back before my leave started. So it's been about a month since I've been forced to adjust to the daily grind... and I'm not adjusting well.

It was truly a great few weeks and largely contributed to my lack of regular blogging. I was in such a point of relaxation that I just couldn't be arsed. So sorry to you loyal readers that were hanging out for a blog (yeah right!) but these things happen.

The state of mental relaxation and peace I was able to achieve over the break still stuns me. I was able to somehow completely switch off and I can't remember the last time I felt like that. Barring the on call mess ups (that's another story) it wasn't until well past the halfway point in my break that I even conciously thought about work. And even then it wasn't about work activities or tasks but just the mere thought that having to go to work was something I would ever need to do again.

I rarely have a break for such a long period, I normally only take a day (or a few) here and there, and maybe that has something to do with it. Or maybe it was more to do with the timing of the break. The Christmas-New Year period is a very relaxing time after all. Lots of friends are also off work and there is loads of Test Match Cricket on TV. But I think it was more than that. Without the requirement to attend or think about any of my usual past times (footy training, footy functions, dinner with the folks, playing poker etc etc) I was literally left with a vacant calendar. So I think the timing of the holiday also played a big factor in how easy I found it to just sit back and relax.

Over the last couple of days I had started to ocassionally put out the "I don't want to go back to work" statement as it slowly dawned on me that it was nearing closer. But such was my relaxed state my heart wasn't really in it. The words were slightly empty as it still hadn't really kicked in fully that I was going to have to go back to work.

About halfway through the walk to the train station this morning it kicked in. In fact it felt, for a split second, that nothing had changed. It was the same walk to the train station at about the same time of the morning with the same feel of my work clothes and the weight of my laptop bag on my shoulder that I feel every day on the way to work. And it felt like the last three weeks were a memory or a dream.

Arriving at work and settling in has almost convinced me that time was a dream. I have the same work stack and the same level of desire to be here that I left with. I'm completely disinterested and completely detached from caring. The same stuff is going on and the same people are here... nothing has changed...

So was it all a dream?