Cheques and balances

Newcastle trip went well; I'm looking forward to writing up the story. The trouble will be keeping it down to 1,200 words...

The biggest news is that I had to cancel my credit card last Thursday after Westpac found two attempts totalling $4,000 to buy airfares on Air France and Lufthansa that were definitely not my transactions. I got worried because they said it could take 5-7 working days to get a new card (and with Christmas/Boxing Day that could've been two weeks...) and I had next to no money because I don't get paid until the end of the month.

Fortunately I remembered an emergency $500 I stashed in another bank account. Also my new card came earlier this week AND I got paid today because of the holidays. Going to be hard to remember a different set of numbers after having that other card for close to seven years.

Also, my tax return estimates came back - apparently I'm also owed money from last year so am likely to receive $8,000 all up, a grand sum that I'm very much looking forward to, especially to go towards my trip to Hawaii.

The week has been a roundabout of lunch, dinners and drinks including my dad's 60th (it's his birthday today but we held a surprise dinner for him on the 17th) and the work Christmas party on Monday night (which is why I didn't blog). I otherwise spent a lot of the weekend at my parent's place mooching on the couch watching the cricket (Australia eventually thrashed England; given recent scorelines it was heartening to watch).

On Sunday I went to writing group Christmas yum cha at Bodhi and introduced Boff before we headed down to St Peters for volleyball. It was way early so we found a pub showing the cricket and saw a brilliant end to the game. Played volleyball for more than two hours straight, too, and deserved the pub dinner afterwards.

Work Christmas party was good. Went to Sake for dinner (modern Japanese) and then to Mizuya for karaoke (and drinking and dessert) and managed to get to bed by 1am.

Tuesday I met Boff at the Chinese Gardens with my new camera, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ100, for a photography excursion, then he went to his WWII game (usually on Weds) and I went to trivia and went a long way to helping our team win. Last question was: Which country does not have a quadrilateral flag? A: Nepal. Yes!

Last night Boff and I saw 'Tron: Legacy' at IMAX. It was an amazing looking film but buggered if I know why they didn't develop some of the supporting characters more. It's like introducing me to interesting people and then telling me I can't talk to them. Afterwards we sat bayside at Darling Harbour where, in a silly mood, I teased him about not liking Christmas carols by singing them.

We also worked out a mathematical formula for the '12 Days of Christmas' to determine how many presents the singer gets. It is: n(13-n) where 'n' is the number of days/item ID. For example, on the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me five golden rings = 5(13-5) = 40 so over the 12 days of Christmas the singer will receive 40 golden rings. Interestingly the most of anything the singer will receive is 42 geese a-laying and 42 swans a-swimming.

Today everyone went to the pub for lunch and all was well. It is now 1.14am Christmas Eve so I will wish you a Merry Christmas if indeed you celebrate this occasion, and I will try and check in once more before the New Year.

If I don't it's because I'm at my parents' place, then Armidale, then Brisbane until January 8. Hmm, just in case I don't, have a Happy New Year.