Andrew and Kathleen

Grim, grey and horrible outside. The dark skies are depressing; after living here for over a year, I've come to realise that Sydney just isn't a pleasant place to be when the sky is any other colour than blue. With Melbourne, it's different. Threatening clouds seem to create an atmosphere that's cosy and warm, almost compelling you to go inside and just hang out.

Hobart, of course, goes equally well with either type of day.

And that segues nicely into...

Heading to Hobart for the weekend, mainly to organise wedding stuff. Most of which got done in the last whirlwind visit a few months ago. Which means we'll have a lot more time for doing nothing for a few lazy hours at the Retro.

Darise and Greta flew up to Sydney for the weekend. It was great to catch up with two of our closest friends, especially since the distance thing (Greta's in Hobart, Darise in Melbourne) means we don't see each other much. We had dinner with Sam on Saturday night, and went to Bondi and Watsons Bay on Sunday. Kathleen's got the digital camera at the moment, so I'll have to upload the photos from Sunday when she gets back from her work trip to Brisbane.

My mate Tony Yoo is standing for the Dems in the safe Labor seat of Reid. He's got an uphill battle, though, trying to get a 17% swing against Laurie Ferguson. Good luck, Tony. Keep the rodents honest.

From Nicholson Cartoons.

The Kleptones have a mash-up of Queen's back catalogue, titled A Night At The Hip Hopera. Remixing songs like Gay Bar with Play The Game, Intergalactic with Radio Ga Ga, it's pretty surreal. Crazy stuff. What will those kids think of next?

The most (in)famous mash-up was the remix of the Beatles' White Album and Jay-Z's Black Album - DJ Danger Mouse's Grey Album.

After over a year of living in Sydney, we finally got around to walking over the Sydney Harbour Bridge:

We didn't climb up the scaffolding - it was too warm for that, plus we don't have this much money to spend:

There are some amazing views of the eastern suburbs that the security cage blocks; luckily there's a little slot just the right size for digital camera:

We have one shelf in our bookcase at home dedicated to our CD collection. Currently, it's segregated by owner, since I don't want my precious Queen CDs getting mixed up hanging around with Kylie.

One thing that's always bothered me since we first moved in to Goodlet St was the fact that I put the CDs on the shelf in the order that they came out of the moving box - i.e., randomly - with the only concession to order being hers or mine.

No more!

I am pleased to announce that I have finally organised my half of the CD shelf.

Alphabetically.

The days of scanning the entire shelf looking for one CD are over for me, since I know where each and every CD should be. And provided the person who plays the CDs puts it back on the shelf in its original position, that's where they will remain.

It wasn't all win-win, though. Some hard decisions needed to made. For example, should albums by the same artist be sorted alphabetically? I decided no, chronologically would make much more sense. And is having two rows of CDs, one on top of another, really such a good idea? I decided it was.

Unfortunately, this means I can never buy a CD again, since resorting the shelf becomes a major logistical exercise. And quite frankly, I've got better things to do.

The Muckury reckons Labor will win, while the Daily Tele insists that NSW is the only state which matters to the outcome.

On the other hand, when it comes to the Greens, all the News Corp papers are singing the same tune.

Just goes to show that Kinki isn't the only one with a board games fetish. We had a crack squad of hardened Pictionaryists invade last night. They left a wake of empty beer and wine bottles, pizza boxes and crumpled-up bits of paper.

It was Arthurs vs Marthas. A humiliating and crushing defeat dished out. Everyone's favourite, the word Playboy, got drawn with the obligatory naked chick.

And then, it was onto the Scrabble:

Is Rodd... giving us the finger?

Kathleen went to a birthday party for the mother of a woman she used to work for in St Leonards. The mother just turned 100. How incredible is that? Imagine the changes you'd have seen over the last century!

In cricket, the commentators always bring up the hoodoo of the 'nervous nineties', the score at which the batsman always starts thinking about the significance of scoring a century, loses his concentration, and gets out. In life, you'd imagine it'd be similar. Going to bed each night, with only weeks to go until The Day, hoping you'd make it to the next morning.

"How was she?" I asked. "Still with us?"

She was absolutely buggered," said Kathleen. "She's been partying for the last three days."

I'm still trying to imagine a 100 year old woman partying for three days straight. She'll want to watch it, or she won't make it to 200!

The Sydney AFL competition had the grand finals today for the premier league, and yesterday for the first division.

And suddenly it's all over for 2004. Next week will be a welcome break from running; the week after I'll be wondering what to do with myself with a whole two day weekend!

The results for the weekend are available for the premier league and the first division already.

The Jakarta Post has a number of stories dealing with the bomb blast at the Australian embassy, with an Indonesian perspective on the situation.

Will this become the Tampa of 2004? From the SMH:

John Howard's reaction yesterday was a model. He was serious but calm, and impeccably bipartisan. Mark Latham, too, was suitably sober and reprimanded a reporter who invited him to comment on the implications for security policy.

Both parties not wanting to make political mileage out of something like this; Australians would be repelled by any attempts to take advantage of a tragedy.

But why?

The cumulative effect of repeated terrorist attacks on Australians on Indonesian soil could easily poison relations - Australians grow frustrated at Jakarta's inadequacies while Indonesians become resentful of Australian pressure.

And this:

Yesterday was something very different - a calculated attack on a country widely identified in Indonesia as a major US ally in a war that is deeply despised.

Australia's Jakarta embassy is one of scores of foreign missions on the street called Rasuna Said, but it was the one the bombers picked even though it is among the hardest to damage.

It sits behind a blast mound and has been designed with an attack in mind.

Twenty-foot high cast iron gates, topped with barbed wire, when I was there three months after September 11. One of the most imposing places in the entire country.

There's also some first-hand accounts from Australian expats:

Looking at the photos of the broken windows caused by the bomb blast, my heart lifted as I saw the Australian flag still flying proudly despite the carnage all around, symbolizing that our country can and will withstand any act of terrorism!!

This is a time where Australians should look to Indonesians offering a helping hand since the time is now when Indonesians really need our help to rebuild this beautiful nation.

And this:

As usual, the victims were the "little people", as Indonesians call them; guards, stall owners, pedestrians.

Travelling to Indonesia for the first time three years ago, I was apprehensive; my experience was the opposite of what I expected. The people are the loveliest, friendliest people, and this is the worst thing that could happen now, just as the country is putting the tragedies of the last few years behind them.

At the same time, Troy is in Russia, just a week after the hostage drama in Breslan. He SMS'd me this morning:

"Driving past 5,000 troops in Red Square and 1000's of others ringing the Kremlin in readiness for anti-govt rally is something I'll never forget!

Really cool animated short - you should check it out. Very painful to watch, though! Ow!

Our friend Tam sent us this video from a bar somewhere in Europe on her Contiki tour. Pretty cool idea - record a small video clip and send it halfway around the world. I just wish the audio was a little better, though!

I've often wanted to 'share the spirit' of a good night out. It never seems like such a good idea in the cold, hard light of day.

Kathleen sat her financial planning module exam today! That's six weeks of stress for her finally over! She's not a good studier, either, by which I mean she's one of those people that, unless she's got her head in the books every waking minute, is convinced she's wasting precious time.

I'm much more sanguine, always was, and accepted my limitations. Two hours a day per subject, and that's it.

We went out for dinner to celebrate, and now she's busy catching up on all the TV she didn't watch over the last week!

I'm a big fan of photos of mountains. There's something awe-inspiring about seeing some of the great peaks of the world, especially since we live in the flattest continent on earth. So here's a gallery I found earlier this evening. Enjoy!

Stef and I wandered around Surry Hills last night trying to find a pub that had a big-screen TV for the Swans game. Can I just say that Sydney is a city where some freak accident of time and space has left the entire place in a perspective-free zone? For example, the Strawberry Hills Hotel had some middle-age jazz band warming up, and we went past two other hotels - neither of which had a TV - before finally finding one on Crown St. On a night when the elimination final was on! If this was any other city in Australia, every single pub would have the game on! Worse than that, we actually saw people sitting HAVING DINNER IN A RESTAURANT WITH NO TV FOR THE FOOTY!! That's right, there were some people that seemed ignorant of the fact that their team was playing in a match of vital importance. How is that possible? Completely unAustralian, if you ask me.

Anyway, we're at the pub, and one of the tables next to us was a bunch of cricketers (cricket?! In August?!! Have you no decency!!) plus a bloke in an Esserden guernsey. A bloke who looked awfully familiar.

So I went over and asked him, "Hey mate, your name's not Stephen, is it?"

He peered at me with the comprehension of a drunk man who can only mentally manage one conversation at once, and ours happened to be the second.

"Mate! I ****ing know your face. Where the **** do I know you from?" People who are incredibly pissed, and old Stephen was pretty pissed, tend to swear a lot.

It was a guy I went to high school with in Hobart, who now lived three streets away in the same suburb.

This is a major coincidence. But before you think "Whoa, that's a pretty freaky occurance", get this:

This is the second person who I have gone to high school with, in another state, not seen in 9 years, and who just now happens to live within shouting distance.

Unbelievable.

So, we had a few more beers, found out about a few ****ing friends that we had in ****ing common and how heaps of them now have ****ing kids and ****ing wives and ****, wasn't it ****ing great to see each other, haven't seen you in ****ing ages. ****.

Crazy times.

The Swans game was crap, too, West Coast aren't a wet weather team and the weather was shithouse. Thank christ we weren't at the game.

Nice to see that Kris is finally learning why Aussie rules is the best game in the world.

Just as long, Kris, as you don't fall into that American trap of telling people you are going to start rooting for Sydney.

Ah, the exuberant love of a new recruit for her team. I went through the same stages once. Back in the 80s, Hawthorn were the champion team, and it was easy to barrack for them. But those glory days are long past, and now I understand the pain of the Geelong supporter, or the Footscray supporter, or, *shudder*, the St Kilda supporter - teams whose last premiership came over 40 years ago.

Kris, once you choose a team, that's it. You can't pick another one that's travelling better in a few years' time. You can't drop them like a discarded beer bottle if they lose a few games. You can't give evasive answers like "I support the game, not just one team" if someone asks you who you barrack for.

But good on ya for being unlike a bunch of other wishy-washy Sydneysiders on Devonshire St on Saturday night who chose to eat at a restaurant - which they could've done on ANY OTHER BLOODY NIGHT OF THE WEEK - rather than getting behind their team.

Had the preliminary final in the Sydney AFL first division yesterday. With my form over the last couple of weeks, I've got a pretty strong chance for the grand final.

Even though it's on the boundary, rather than as a field umpire, it's still an achievement to get a grand final.

In yesterday's game, I was running with a former goal umpire who's officiated in an AFL grand final - the ultimate achievement in football - as well as a goal umpire who's on the current AFL panel.

The laptop is stuffed.

Managed to spill milk and cereal all over the laptop yesterday morning as I was eating breakfast while checking the news. Don't ask. I'm sure everyone has knocked a drink or something over near their computer at some stage, too, so don't go laughing at me like Kathleen just did.

I had to take the entire thing apart, a process that involved unscrewing about fifteen gajillion screws, in order to drain the milk out. In addition, I'm lucky I have the hands of a five-year-old Asian street urchin, since the internals are so damn fiddly.

Anyway, today it started giving a whole bunch of keyboard errors on boot up, which means I didn't clean it properly. So I've soaked it in a sink-full of water with detergent, rinsing it afterwards. It's currently draining (after I gave it a quick going over with a hairdryer!), and, fingers crossed, should be ok after a day or two.

Fingers crossed.

Thank christ I burned all our digital photos from the last 8 months to CD just last week - what a disaster it would've been to lose those! As it is, there's a fair amount of data I need to get off it somehow, assuming that the thing is now officially Cactused.