March 06, 2005 22:13

So some more detail about the last few weeks (I got distracted by dinner before).

I went out to one of the Secret Room parties for the first time in probably two years. I went with Becky (who I had met just recently), Shawn, Brandon and Gillie. It was a special pajama party theme, and was, shall we say, an interesting experience. The location for this special event was a club for people with open minds and few inhibitions. It was an eye-opener. At least until the vodka I drank most of a bottle of kicked in.

The following night I went out to Herb's for a dinner party with Herb, Eileen, Russ, Brandon, Gillie, David, and Tori. This was a lot of fun, and we had some great conversation over some good food. After the dinner party I met up with Lauren, Matt and Brad at the Local for a couple of drinks and a few rounds of Mexicans. I then headed over to the Highlander for drinks with Sarah G, Becky and Karen. These three eventually went off to Future, and I stayed around chatting with Eric (Dammit) and his girlfriend. As the time approached closing, Eric dropped me off at the Local, where I had a couple of drinks and then agreed to join a poker game.

So it was across the road to Brian's, where Brian, Patrick, Tom (and maybe others that I can't recall) played until about 9:30 Sunday morning. I came out ahead, which was nice. I then headed over to the Brewhouse to watch the Carling Cup final between Liverpool and Chelsea. When I got there though, I found that the Brewhouse had elected not to show it. I hung around for a while to confirm this, but that was indeed the case. The only options were to drive up to Buckhead to watch it at Fado. That really was out of the question considering that I was closing in on 24 hours of being awake, or watching it on pay per view. I elected to go home.

I ended up reading some magazines, catching the score on BBC. It wasn't the desired result (Chelsea 3-2 in extra time). I had a chat with Lauren and then spent the rest of the day watching movies: Legally Blonde and Mean Girls. Becky came by and we watched The Frighteners and Citizen Kane.

The week was busy, primarily with work, but also with stops in at the Local. Trivia on Wednesday was good; Lexi was in town and joined us for the evening. And even better, we came in second, beaten only by Bar. On Thursday, I went to see Cursed with Becky. It was silly but fun. After the movie we stopped by the Local for Vanessa's birthday.

Friday night was happy hour at The Pink Pony. Someone among our regular Localites had never been, so Kris (Tim's girlfriend) arranged a group outting. It was quite a fun time. From the Local came Tim, Tom, Chris, Joel, Craig, Craig's new friend (I think her name was Lauren), and me. Kris brought along a group of her friends: Anne, Brandy, Katrina, Chris, and a couple of others whose names unfortunately escape me (sorry). There were shots, there was beer, there were naked women. All very pleasant. And then it was back to the Local for a few more drinks.

I had planned on going to the Brewhouse to watch the France vs Wales Six Nations game on Saturday. I even called Matthew, a French fellow I know, to see if he was interested in joining me. As it turned out, he was in Utah, skiing, and the game was last week. D'oh. In better news, Wales won by six points. So I ended up spending the morning reading The Pleasure of Philosophy and then went to the Brewhouse to watch the Liverpool vs Newcastle game. This did not give me the desired result (again) and so I came home afterwards. After a little while I was not feeling particularly good. I did some reading and some TV watching but I eventually came to the conclusion that I needed to relocate to the bathroom.

I stayed in on Saturday night, while my stomach proceeded to empty itself through as many orifices as were obliging. Not pleasant. When things settled down, I ended up watching Local Hero and then random stuff on TV. I went to bed around midnight, but it seemed that I didn't actually get to sleep until three or four in the morning.

I slept pretty well once I did get to sleep, although I didn't get as much as I wanted. On finally deciding to get out of bed I spent the bulk of the day reading and listening to music. I finished The Pleasure of Philosophy and started on The Peloponesian War, which Tim had loaned me. I also did some laundry (because it was necessary). I had a little bit of soup around midday. Later in the afternoon, Jennifer M stopped by to drop off a t-shirt and to collect a couple of CDs. We chatted for a good while and after she left I decided to make some dinner - namely the pork chops I was planning on having last night. They turned out well, but the brocolli was nasty. Following dinner I started watch the extras from the extended DVD of Return of the King. These were really good. I switched over to TV to catch The Simpsons and Arrested Development.

It's now a little after 10pm and I should be thinking about bed. But since I didn't get out last night, and I haven't seen many people in the last 24 hours (ie I've seen only one person), I do feel like popping up to the Local for a little social interaction.

March 06, 2005 18:08

It has been a busy past couple of weeks. Meeting new people, making new friends, trying out new things, keeping generally busy.

Work has been busy. The implementation that I am working on is getting closer to go-live. There have been a few frustrations, but I feel comfortable that I am keeping on top of all the things that I need to stay on top of.

February 24, 2005 01:17

Okay, it is 1:13am. I have obviously been drinking for quite a while. But what I have to say I think is quite a pro pro,/p>

Tonight I spent a lot of time hanging out with an incredibly attractive woman and her friend from CA. Mr CA was a really nice guy. I can hold nothing against him. I really dig him. But I also dig hi s "friend who is just a friend"

But having said that, they seemed very much together, so I wasn't going to impose on that.

But it does leave me in a a slightly upset state in the respect that: (a) I do like this girl I met this past weekend.

Late edit: Man I was drunk that night...

February 21, 2005 23:18

The Daily Show tonight is a rerun that I have seen twice, so I don't need to watch it again. I should go to bed right now, since I have to be on site at the customer depot tomorrow, but I have that light-headed feeling that suggests I will be up a little while longer.

I had a good weekend. I actually had a pretty great weekend. I had some good social time with work people that involved two or three pubs, I had multiple instances of poker. I had driving to a party that I should not have driven to, but was delivered home from (and the party was really good - I just should not have gotten behind the wheel). I had making out with attractive women (with permission from boyfriends where necessary). I had healthy doses of very good single malt scotch whisky. More poker. And The Majestic. And digits. And pimping.

Yes, I was pimped. I did not pimp, but I was pimped. It is quite a strange scenario to find one's self in. I wasn't going to argue with it, because, well, the pimping was good, and the audience was too.

I am feeling somewhat disheartened by the fact I have to go to work tomorrow. Well, go on site tomorrow. I am really not cut out for this responsibility shit. I do it because I have to. Otherwise these bills don't get paid and I can't afford to live the lifestyle that I like. Maybe I win the lottery tomorrow night and all will go well after that. Otherwise I guess I'll just keep with this working thing.

Speaking of tomorrow, it's a Champions League game tomorrow. Hopefully I will get out of work early enough to get to the game. We shall see.

It rained hard tonight. And I drank lots of vodka. Hmm....vodka...

February 18, 2005 15:25

Ah, mid-afternoon Friday. I'm sitting here watch data process into a new database for Monday. It's going to run for another hour or so, so I'll probably head off soon and do the additional work that needs to be done from home tomorrow. This afternoon, a group of us from work are going to head over to Garrison's, a local Vinings drinking establishment, for a couple of post-work drinks.

And yes, it's Friday, but I'm listening to Saturday. Specifically to bFM, the University of Auckland radio station. Apparently it's a beautiful morning there. There are currently a couple of guys talking about global warming over a pretty groovy soundtrack. Well, they were, now they're just talking general rubbish at each other, over the music. I was listening to bFM yesterday and heard a pretty interesting remake of NWA's Straight Outta Compton by Nina Gordon.

Played trivia on Wednesday with Lauren, Matt and Chris. I didn't get there until the second half of the game because I was busy working on stuff. We came in third on a tie-breaker. We would have been second had we given a better answer for the tiebreaker question.

Aside from that it has been a pretty low key week. Just work and chores. I think I will keep it pretty low key this evening, after Garrisons. Maybe just the Local for a few drinks. There's no Liverpool game this weekend (it's FA Cup 5th round), so I might actually have a sober Saturday. There's a party OTP on Saturday night that I should try to stop in for, but it is such a long way to go. Sunday afternoon has an event going on, so I shall be busy then.

Have a fun weekend.

February 16, 2005 10:31

So today I am in "hurry-up-and-wait" mode. I had difficulty getting out of bed again (lots more crazy dreams overnight) and was, as a result, later than I typically desire in getting to work. When I got here, I had exactly one email of any substance in my inbox. So I dealt with that, then faxed a change of address to my 401(k) plan (from my previous employment), called my accountant to clear up a couple of tax-related questions (I will be able to claim a loss for the five months I was without work), mailed some stuff, researched cellphones that I'm not going to buy, cancelled my Setanta subscription for my cellphone, chatted with my project manager. So I'm sitting here, waiting for data, waiting for a server, twiddling my thumbs. Let's see what else there is to read today.

February 15, 2005 21:20

Well damn. I have had a busy evening and I think I am deserving now of a drink. I did some grocery shopping on my way home and made myself a pork chop and steamed vegetables for dinner. Tomorrow shall be salmon, and Thursday I think shall be spaghetti bolognase a la Damon. While dinner was cooking, I got the first of three loads of washing started. I still have a fourth to do, but I think I will leave that until tomorrow, since it is the cold-water wash and my clothes horse thing is currently occupied.

I made a new attempt to remove the carpet stain in my bedroom, but managed to fail again. Maybe I need to add more bleach. I don't think I mentioned the stain. Well, on my first night here in the new apartment, I slept in my sleeping bag. That's all fine and good except at some point I spilt some water on it. I thought I had cleaned it up but apparently not. Why did it take so long for me to discover this? Well, when the movers actually brought my stuff in, I threw the sleeping bag in the corner, and there it sat for three months or so. It wasn't until I went to unpack more stuff that I moved the sleepong bag and discovered that the lovely green had transferred to the carpet. Ugh. I have tried several stain removers and carpet cleaners and today I went with the bleach and paper towels. But no luck still. This may just have to be something that stays until I leave and then get pinged for. Unless other great ideas come along for cleaning it out.

I paid some bills, sorted some other mail, threw out some magazines, worked on my tax documents (must call my accountant tomorrow), prepared a change of address fax for my old Marconi 401(k) (retirement savings plan), did the dishes, put away my tools from the laundry repair. I think that's sufficient to allow me a relaxing settling down drink.

February 15, 2005 11:10

It appears I left my cellphone at home today. And it also looks like I left my email client running. I should think about setting up a remote connection port through my firewall so I can manage my PC remotely in times like this. Never mind, it's not really such a big deal.

Work is being less than stimulating today. I am once again reliant on the customer to complete some tasks, and I'm having some difficulty getting the contact details for one person in particular from whom I need to get some data for comparison. All a little frustrating, but it comes with the territory.

I did not sleep particularly well last night. Much tossing and turning, strange dreams, and a blurring of memory and imagination. And the good old REM-paralysis. I should have gone to bed earlier than I did, but I got sucked into CSI: Miami and then switched over to watch The Daily Show. Getting out of bed this morning was quite a chore.

Today's good news is that I am still on the payroll. Not that there's any reason why I shouldn't be, but it is always nice to see that your paycheck has been delivered to your bank account. This allows me to pay a few bills and buy some groceries tonight. Then I shall do some laundry, since my laundry pile seems like it is about to start growing with a life of its own.

So not much really to discuss right now. Just sitting here at work.

February 14, 2005 20:13

And the saga of the laundry moves in strides towards its close. The man from Sears came today. He was supposed to have come on Saturday but that didn't work out. He did come today though, and in repairing my ailing washing machine, he also imparted much knowledge that should allow me to deal with any problems I should encounter in the future. He also was able to supply me with a thermal fuse for my drier. And now, as the clock marches on to 8pm, I have put my laundry room back together. I still have a couple of screws left over, but isn't that always the case?

The weekend was essentially a drunken haze. The highlight I think was either Saturday afternoon's trip to Tower Liquor, or Sunday night at the Local, as the stories of the weekend came out. Tom and Craig apparently decided at 11pm on Saturday night to drive to Biloxi to gamble; Craig won $100 on the slots and Tom broke even at the tables. I watched a disappointing Liverpool performance at the Brewhouse, where Sharron was not interested in letting me leave. I had to go of course, because I was meeting up with Tim and Steve to go purchase an expensive bottle of scotch. The final purchase: Bowmore 21 year old. Afterwards we sampled some of my current stock (Glenfiddich Caoran Reserve was incredible) and the Basil Hadyn bourbon that John gave me for Christmas. Sunday was largely a waste until I walked up to the Local for dinner. I had originally planned on going to Camelli's, but they were not open when I got there so I turned around and walked up to the Local. I read my latest Economist, ate some food, and then had myself a drink. Before long there was companionship and jocularity - especially at the farce that was the Grammy Awards.

That's about all I have to say for now. More thoughts later perhaps.

February 07, 2005 23:15

So I managed to complete part of one of the things I wanted to do tonight. Thanks to Lauren's generosity, I was able to go over to her place to finish the load of washing that was in the machine. Of course, in doing so I managed to soak my apartment and break my clothes basket. I also missed 24, did not finish tidying up, do any of the backups I wanted to do, scan my travel documents, settle my accounts (bank & credit card statements arrived today), sort out my tax info, or any of the other things I had intended. Oh, I did pick up my projector from the Local. I guess that makes two successes.

And since it is now after 11pm, I am not going to continue the thoughts I raised yesterday, but will instead go to bed.