oddlight

:: four :: snowboarding, sydney's first flashmob, birthday surprises.

Welcome. Ahh to have fallen into the same trap as soOo many in this online age, the unfulfilled promise of the update.
"More soon" they cry. Terrible last words.
Today is the day after my 30th birthday, and i feel great. The guys surprised me with an awesome dinner out at Taings in Darling Harbour on Saturday night, which was a friendly little thai place with awesome food : highly recommended. Let me see: who came : Fredescu, Mchunraha, Link, Miguel, Myles, Gibbo and myself. Other than the first two, who are my current housemates, it's terrible how little I get to see my friends in this great age of interconnection. I like the idea of future mobile phones having a buddy-list like icq or messenger and alerting you when someone on your list is in the vicinity. I wish that :
A: this was my idea
B: the technology was more easily available for the layperson to dabble with. Such a system would require a close vicinity network in order to be truly useful, but such network are the backbone of the *new wave of wireless mobile computing* ie; grabbing your mobile phone/pda and requesting : "
"Where is the nearest restaurant selling seafood laksa for under $13?" or "For gods sake, will someone tell me where the nearest public toilet is?"
All too soon, no doubt, there's money to be made.
Anyway, now where were we?
Aha. the night of the birtthday... after dinner we ventured (in the start of the winds and rain that blasted sydney [up to 140km/hr!] the next day) across to the Star City Casino and up through it's imposing atmosphere, to the cocktail bar on [i think] the 7th floor. That was a sweet time, often whe we organise group dinners [omg it's been way too long] the thrilling part for me, while it's fantastic to have everybody i love around me, is often the feeling that I'm perforating an atmosphere that I would not normally. That is...
...And i hate to give the game away...
but the lives of my friends and I are not usually [or at least that often] what you would call the swinging, dapper, cocktail crowd.
But i guess thats not the point, and if it IS the point, then it's probably a fairly obvious one.
Most people love the escapism from the trudgery that throwing on your best clothes and sipping cocktails above the city affords them. And.. Hell! living like a little bit of a slob part of the time not only saves you cash for such high-flying ventures, but also enhances the appeal when actually out and at it. Until you come home that is.

so yeh, anyway, the big surprise that i had not expected was a shiny new hp scanjet 3750c waiting for when we got home. Thanks guys, I know i said it at the time, but here it is officially. a VERY nice gift.

A couple of weeks ago a group of 6 of us guys (mostly from work) took a week or so off work to head down south for a bit of snowboarding. And maan was it great. SoOo very addictive, Its not going to be the last time that i strap on a snowbaord i truly hope. After a week of that, and the associative partying, I bid the lads farewell and caught the bus down *south from canberra to melbourne. I was wondering why it was so cheap ($60) and that became obvious when I realised it was Canberra to Melbourne via Wagga Wagga ... aah t'was grand to see my old stomping ground again, if only for 3 minutes as we passed through.
The important thing is that I got to Melbourne eventually, (and quite frankly was relieved to be able to sit down for 9 hours) and *shock* horror* actually met Dale who I have been friends with for approx 3 yrs now via web and phone. We got to spend some quality time together, and I really appreciated him making time. I also was able to see my friend Tamara, and had a great day at the Outre Gallery with Trina, a friend I made via one of our corporate customers at work. The gallery is highly recommended. Go and support them, there should be more places like that on the planet.

Dale and I spent a day and a half in Ballarat, we did a couple of tourist things, which were surprisingly interesting, and I managed to hit the town for a night as a local... getting back to the hotel at 4am. Its amazing how you dance when you realise you'll most likely never see any of these people again.

Sydney had it's first flashmob on Saturday 23rd August. Naturally I had to go, and I'm happy to say that it was a resounding success, mad props to all involved, I can't wait until the next opportunity to engage in a little en masse tom-foolery.

..aah thats about enough for the time being.
..more soonish.