Relax

So it has been a couple of weeks of doing lots, not all of it pleasant. I have been accused by my colleagues of going to work too much - "you can't keep away from the place!" kind of gets tiresome when you really don't want to be there, especially not early on your day off.

Fortunately I have left those troubles behind me. One set of proofs have gone to the client and the other I will deal with on Wednesday, so tomorrow is completely open for me to do what I want.

So, highlights from the past few weeks? Boff and I went to Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi to Tamarama Beach (at some point I will put photos up in my album) a couple of Tuesdays ago. It had stormed heavily on the Monday evening and I had dressed for rain in gumboots and a rainjacket on what turned out to be one of the most glorious days for the beach. Anyway, the concept is a nice one, so I'm glad I finally made the trip out there. In the past I've refrained because I only had weekends free, which mean jostling with many, many people. The downside of going on a weekday, however, is the number of schoolkids wandering around touching and trampling on the sculptures.

The following Saturday Boff and I were meant to go on a bushwalk from Katoomba but trackwork meant the journey would be more than 2 hours each way so we cancelled at the last minute (turns out the organiser had saved us seats in his car but didn't tell us!). Anyway, we went local and did Artarmon to Middle Harbour. Took the wrong path in the middle somewhere but with help from Nokia managed to get back on the right path.

I discovered we have different definitions of the word 'lost'. My definition is 'you don't know where you are and/or you don't know how to get to where you want to be' whereas Boff's is 'map-reading error'. Well, no, because one can always find the right way even though one is not on the suggested path of a map. So there.

Newtown Festival was on November 14th and was quite a good day out. I went to see Ness in the morning, though, which meant I missed a couple of bands but caught The Snowdroppers, The Paper Scissors and Richard in Your Mind. Markets were awesome. Didn't buy anything for lack of funds but have been eyeing off products at Kaboodle Designs since.

Some recurring occasions include going to trivia on Tuesday nights at The Duke of Edinburgh Hotel in Enmore. Boff and I have been three times now, joining his friend Peter and sometimes others: the first time we tied first with another team and I lost the rock-scissors-paper tiebreak; the second time Boff's friend Ian won a tiebreak; the third time we were coming last and then we were only one of two teams to get the bonus questions right so ended up coming second.

I've also started volunteering at Vinnies as per a previous post. It is actually thoroughly satisfying. Most of the time I fix up the books, which involves alphabetising them by author and also pricing and restocking the shelves, but I have also priced and sorted clothing and served customers at the register.

The Saturday just gone was the Freecon, a free sci-fi con held at Bankstown library. It wasn't all great, but there were enough good bits in it to make the trip out there worthwhile (don't even get me started on the fact that trackwork only occurs on lines other than mine when I need to travel on them).

In the evening I went to Yulli's at Sir's invitation. Have to say, really great restaurant and genuinely friendly service AND AWESOME BEER (many varieties from local microbreweries). Good food and value for money, too. Will definitely go back. Contender for my 30th.

That's all I have to say about the past few weeks. Tomorrow I'm embracing an entire day off, even if I have to wake up early to have a depreciation schedule done for my house (aaaah... haven't done my tax return yet, no). I'm going to see Harry Potter 7.1 and will probably trundle along to trivia again too. Ciao.