There will be blood

I swear I will fill in the two weeks of my life that are currently missing from this chronicle, but for now I'm just going to recount the last week.

On Tuesday, Boff and I said a fond farewell to Melbourne. I only had time for breakfast at the Hopetoun Tea Rooms before I had to go (though I did discover a TRAIN & TRAM EMPORIUM on Flinders Lane on the way back to the hotel), but Boff had a much later flight and was able to discover Melbourne unimpeded by his know-it-all girlfriend.

Flight was slightly delayed, which meant it landed at 3pm instead of 2.30pm. The significance of this was that there was a press conference scheduled for 3pm where the two undecided independent MPs were to announce which political party they'd side with to form a minority government. Like the journo geek I am, I tried to stay on the plane to watch SkyNews but got kicked out only to discover that the waiting lounge had SkyNews on a big screen so sat and watched it while the next lot of passengers got on the plane. Just as well, Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott took 30 minutes to confirm they'd support Labor, which means Julia Gillard is still our PM.

Wednesday meant back to work, though I did have an interesting time of it. I interviewed a project manager who'd gone to Sri Lanka to help with water supply and sanitation in the aftermath of the civil war there. Never has a discussion about toilets been so interesting! He was a very cool guy, highly educated and very worldly, though only young (28) - and waiting for a possible call-up to Pakistan to assist in the flooded areas.

Work was the least eventful part of my week (finally, she gets a life!) as I rushed off to the Sydney Underground Film Festival as a volunteer. Was there for opening night, which involved general ushering as well as consuming far too much pizza, pies and beer than was good for me; Friday, which was standing in the cold, door-bitchin' with a Canadian guy called Vadim filling in the boredom with travel stories; Saturday afternoon, which was much the same as Friday night but in the hot sun minus the Canadian.

The reason I was there for the afternoon and not the (more fun) closing night was because it was Rusty's 30th birthday party in the afternoon. Actually, I missed most of the birthday ceremonies at Petersham Bowling Club but did get to play half an hour of bowls. I was not impressed with Boff who didn't tell me he was going to bowls, which meant I hadn't RSVPed for him to Ness. Also I thought it was weird and rude that he'd kind of gatecrashed the birthday of someone I hadn't introduced him to yet.

The group ended up at the White Cockatoo where we all struggled to finish arm-long schnitzels we'd foolishly ordered for ourselves. Boff left at about 9pm; the rest of us considered going to Newtown or Manacle (a gay club we always joke about) but instead we went to the games room where I won two games of pool for my team. Or at least I was one half of a duo that won two games of pool. Actually, I did sink at least one black so that sentence is partially true.

Was pretty tired when I got home, so even my 11am breakfast the next morning in Newtown with Sir was a little on the early side. We went and saw the fairly average 'King of Thorn' as part of the Reel Anime festival, then I wandered down to St Peters to play volleyball and then wandered back up to Newtown with Boff.

We played a prank on one of his friends, Aston, who didn't know about me. Boff arranged to meet him at Better Read than Dead and struck up a conversation about how geeky he was and how he needed to get out more while I browsed some bookshelves nearby. He then started discussing a good technique for picking up chicks at bookstores and sidled up to me and started chatting me up. Aston was mortified when I actually agreed to go to dinner with Boff on the spot. So much so that I told him shortly thereafter who I was, though Boff said we should have kept going.

Anyway, we ate at Green Gourmet and then Aston left shortly thereafter and I made Boff kill some time with me browsing at a few book stores down King St before he had to go home and I went to see Sir's friend Anne's cabaret show 'What I Did for Love' at Notes, which was part of The Sydney Fringe. I just missed a train to the city so I sat at the station for 29 minutes and finished reading 'Eat Pray Love' and got to bed at 1am.

Today I gave blood in the morning, got my hair cut and had lunch with my parents (they are going to Singapore on Friday). In a bid for productivity, I also did two loads of laundry and transcribed an hour-long interview (the one about toilets) that turned out to be 4,000 words. I've written more than half the article but thought I'd give some blog-love before I let another Monday slip by.

Boff has decided he's going to lose his gut and asked me if I was planning on doing anything about my weight (he was not saying I'm fat, in case you're wondering, he just knows that although I'm comfortable the way I am, I wouldn't mind losing a few kilos). According to my blood donation records, I haven't gained any weight since December 2009, but I haven't lost any either. I could stand to lose 5-10kgs over the next 3-6 months. "It'll be easier if we're both on the same mission," he said.

Anyway, so I reckon I've done my fair share of exercise this week. I walked practically everywhere (from Marrickville to Petersham, even! That's two suburbs!) and I played an hour of volleyball yesterday and today, apart from a small piece of chocolate, the naughtiest thing I consumed was some juice. Let's hope this is the path I'll have to follow; add a bit of swimming and bushwalking, subtract a penchant for gelato and M&Ms.

I hate dieting. What I hate even more is people on diets. The last thing I'd want to be is a hypocrite.