Andrew and Kathleen

Last night we went through all the classical music CDs we have in the house, trying to find some pieces for the string quartet to play at the wedding.

It's a lot harder than it would seem. When we first met with the quartet, we were given a list of pieces that they could play. Unfortunately, none of the names mean anything to us. "We want the one that goes 'dum da da de dum... you know? That one...?"

Everyone knows the tunes, but not the names, especially when the names are something along the lines of Concerto No. 18 in E Minor. And I'm sure 'tune' isn't the right word when referring to classical music, but I'm struggling to think of a more high-brow word.

Anyway, we managed to find a few that we liked and that hopefully the quartet won't turn up their noses at. I hope the stuff we picked isn't the Khe Sanh of classical music.

"I can't believe you picked THAT! Everyone picks that!"

My sister, Lisa, passed her exams and is graduating (at long last!) in mid-December!! She ended up getting a credit and a distinction in her final two subjects, which is not too bad at all.

She's more relieved than excited, though. I guess that's what happens when you're working shifts AND studying!

Our friends Heath and Tomoko just had their first baby - a son named Kentaro.

Kentaro managed to send Kathleen into that weird, undocumented female mode where they start squealing "How cute! How gorgeous!" over and over again.

Actually, I can see why.

Work had their Christmas functions over the weekend. On Friday, the crowd from the Melbourne office flew up for yum cha and a barbie at the boss' place in Abbotsford. Then, on Saturday, under a 35C Sydney sun, we chartered a boat for a few hours' around the harbour.

I say boat, but that's like calling the Centrepoint Tower a tall building.

This thing apparently cost something in the order of $5m. Let's just say it's not something you'd take out on a whim, not when you need a staff of five onboard.

It was a beautiful day, too. Eating fresh seafood (oysters!) moored off Vaucluse with a scorching sun beaming down on the water... we need a few more Saturdays like that!

Myer had a 10% off sale tonight, so we wandered in after work to buy a new wallet. Funnily enough, the new wallet is pretty much exactly the same as the old one. It's funny how I'm so set in my ways that I have such a strong opinion about whether a wallet should have a photo sleeve (no) or an additional flap (again, no).

My 'temporary' wallet was a bulldog clip.

Anyway, now I just have to wait for the replacement cards to arrive to put in it.

We've just had a crap weekend. In fact, it's been worse than crap. After losing my wallet on Friday, we got broken into on Saturday. Some idiot smashed his way in through our glass balcony door, and grabbed the digital camera, an MD player and some of Kathleen's jewellery. The only thing preventing it from being worse is that fact that the balcony is in open view of about six other apartments, it was Saturday afternoon with people walking past all the time, plus getting larger items down over the balcony would have been too much effort. Nobody we've talked to saw it or heard it.

No insurance either - I'll be arranging some on Monday morning. Also I'll be having a word with the landlord about getting some security bars placed on the balcony. Most, if not all, of the other units on our block have security bars, so that's the only reason I can see that we would have been chosen.

The glass company came by last night and boarded up the door with plywood, and we're waiting on them to come back and fit new glass today. He's done such a good job at short notice, and we're so happy with the plywood, we're thinking about keeping it. Maybe we'll start a new decorating trend.

The worst bit is knowing some idiot has been through your house. And knowing that our apartment being so exposed was no panacea.

Luckily Kathleen had her engagement ring on - that would have been the worst to lose.

I got my driver's license and credit card (which has now been cancelled) back in the mailbox this morning, after Drew was kind enough to return it overnight. He also dropped off a card which I didn't remember having in my wallet - an invitation to Hillsong Church. Getting the license back is one good thing.

Also good was seeing McGrath and Gillespie both score 50s - McGrath is now Australia's newest all-rounder, according to Tony Greig. As I write this, he's just taken two wickets in New Zealand's second innings.

Sometime between last night and this morning I've misplaced my wallet, coin purse and work security card. They travel in two different pockets, so it's unlikely they fell out - the fact that all three are missing, while my mobile and house keys are not, mean it's likely I've just put them down somewhere obscure and forgotten where. I've been looking for over an hour and it's driving me INSANE!

UPDATE

A bloke rang me up to let me know he'd found the credit card and driver's license in an ATM bin in Cleveland St. I've cancelled everything, reported it to the police and just have to hope someone drops in the rest of the stuff.

Left work early yesterday, and both Kathleen and I found ourselves at home by 5pm. Gorgeous weather outside, daylight savings, what to do? Jump on the bus to Coogee Beach, which we think is nicer than Bondi. The shadows were pretty long when we arrived - but it was amazing to see so many people in the water!

Walked up Coogee Bay Rd to Randwick for dinner at Pho Le. That's Kathleen's Asian background - she thinks nothing of having hot, spicy soup on a hot day!

There was a Japanese couple sitting near us - him complete with t-shirt stating "Top Six Signs You've Been In Japan Too Long" (number 5 - you find yourself bowing on the telephone!)

Ever since we moved into the new building, we've had a whopping big coffee percolator that, deep down, wants to be a temperamental artiste. "No! I simply cannot work with the crap you are giving me!"

Proving the old programmer's axiom of Garbage In, Garbage Out, there is nothing it can do to turn the crap coffee its fed into Liquid Gold. So as a result, the worker bees are stimulating the local economy (the really really local economy, i.e. the cafe downstairs) since you wouldn't piss in the coffee produced by the poor percolator.

I believe they source it from Viking, or some other office supplies company. It's the nastiest, crappiest, tasteless, cheapest - and quite possibly caffeine-less - generic office coffee you can possibly find.

Anyway, yesterday someone replaced the coffee machine with something a bit more modern. But the same problem still remains. The machine is not the problem.

When I was on a death march project at Norwich, the coffee machine maintained a cult-like hold over us coders. You could almost see the golden aura around it as you arrived at 7am for a 12 hour day.

I wish I could say that the absence of good coffee at work is making the cut back. Unfortunately, the opposite has happened, since I end up doing a coffee run mid-morning with some of the other caffeine-starved souls.

Kathleen was spewin' on Thursday night watching the Amazing Race - the teams had just flown to Egypt. "Bitch!" she yelled at the TV. She's always wanted to go and see the mummies.

Yesterday, the Best Man fired off one of his missives after joining a tour group through, you guessed it, Egypt:

Doing it with Intrepid was great, and we also met the tour leader of one of the other Intrepid groups - none other than former 'Scray fullback Danny Southern. His post-football career is now centred around leading tour groups through Egypt. Ah, the people you meet. And to think Cairo is a long way from the Western Oval...

Danny Southern was one of the ugliest players to ever pull on a pair of boots. But he was fully into travelling, and I think Egypt was one of his passions. Looks like he's living the dream!

If it's any consolation for Kathleen, hearing about Troy and the pyramids, no doubt he'll be a little more homesick looking at the photo above!!

Best letter to the editor. Ever. EVER!

Those Americans are so far ahead of what we are capable of.

Channel Nine, captains of tasteless, are running ads for a TV show about Siegfried and Roy getting mauled by a tiger in their Las Vegas show.

"WHY did it ATTACK?!" intones the promo.

Hmm, I don't know, maybe because it's a frickin' TIGER.

Sounds like we're not the only ones to have had problems with their neighbours. We moved out in the end. The neighbours at our current place are quiet as. Except for the blokes across the hall, who love testing the performance of their home theatre system.

Monday morning, I submitted my timesheet for the week before, like a good, conscientious contractor. Only trouble was, a charge code hadn't been raised to charge the work to. It's coming, it's coming, said the project manager. Hmmm, I said. So I put the work down to the previous code I was using. Timesheet comes back from the project secretary with a big, fat REJECTED written on it in red pen. I swear she's a rejected teacher.

Tuesday morning, the entire organisation gets an email about how critically important it is that timesheets get submitted promptly on Monday morning, so there are no gaps and everything is reconciled and hunky dory.

About five seconds after that, the project manager sends a followup email. Yes, he pronounces. Prompt timesheets are CRITICAL to the organisation, and the world is at risk of falling off its axis should anyone's timesheet not be in. Presumably this doesn't apply to this still waiting for him to get the charge code.

Ah, it's tough being a corporate warrior.

It appears Winamp whips the llamas ass no longer.

Denzil will be green with envy at hearing we went to SxS. Hey, Denzil, you can check out the exhibits online, from half the world away!

I bought my wedding band. It's taken a while to find something that I feel comfortable wearing. I don't wear rings, so to have something on my finger all day will take some getting used to, so I wanted something that was pretty unobtrusive. The gold domed band I bought looks good, too.

I have a bit of a phobia about not being able to get the ring off - I have visions of ripping my knuckle with a tight ring, so I hope Kathleen appreciates what I'm going through for her!

She ordered hers a fortnight ago, and it will be ready in mid-December - and hopefully not a second later!

We went and saw Hero on the weekend with Steph and Eva.

It was, without a doubt, the most beautiful movie I have ever seen in my life. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was phenomenal, but Hero is in another league altogether. It's even a better Jet Li movie than Once Upon A Time In China.

Can't believe it took over two years to get to Australia. Now I only have Totoro to look forward to.

Broadway was also showing previews for Team America, which went down phenomenally well.

When we were in Japan, we used to see Japanese salarymen sleeping in public all the time. I think the incredible overtime, not to mention the obligatory (really!) after-work boozing they do is to blame.

Kathleen is getting in touch with her inner Asian at the excessively saccharine Hello Kitty Online World.

Him name is hopkin green frog.

For my American friends: you might need to update your geography. The new North America, post-US election, to reconcile with reality. An alternative is also available. Feel free to take your pick.

Wow! I can't believe I overlooked saying anything about Matt and Anj's new baby!!! It's not every day one of your best mates becomes a dad for the first time. What a cute little tacker!

Another day, another Blogspot contact! Steph and Eva have been added!

Woken up by an amazing clap of thunder this morning - the loudest I have ever heard (and I heard some corkers when I was in Indonesia). It was followed by a torrential bucketing of rain that you could hear rolling in. The storms alone make living up here interesting.

After three days, we've finally finished making the wedding invitations. Ah, it's been fun but stressful (mostly for Kathleen), and we almost had a blue after I came home from the stationary shop five cards short - the shop was sold out. That was my excuse, and I'm sticking with it.

Now to get them mailed out...