Quote du jour 1

"If we are the only intelligent life in the universe, at least there's a finite number of idiots."
Steven Coallier

I've got no idea who this guy Steven is, but it made me laugh.....

The Matrix

In 1999 The Matrix was released.

I've never been a massive fan of Keanu Reeves, all that fake brooding bollocks... christ.

But I went to see The Matrix when it was released. I can't remember why - it was 8 years ago, duh - but I was exhausted and I fell asleep for probably half of the film.

Result: I have always been kinda 'whatever' about the whole Matrix thing where everyone was super keen to see the sequels and so on - I never saw them.

Anyway on the idiot box on Sunday evening was the Matrix. OK, I missed the first 5 minutes, but I watched the rest - and I concede, it's actually pretty good - the effects are good even all these years later and after all the spoofs. And of course, I didn't know this before, but it was actually filmed in Sydney, so throughout the film there were all these places which are so familar now. There's even a tiny glimpse of the Sydney Harbour Bridge - really!! It was actually pretty cool.

So I'm thinking now, Matrix 2 and 3 could be on the list of things to do.....

Happy Birthday to....

The Sydney Harbour Bridge.....

Woooooo..... 75 years.....

So they closed the bridge to traffic and let people walk across it. Mind you, you can actually walk across it on any day - just not on the road, they have a special walkway area and on the other side, a special cyclists area - but I digress.

Apparently 200,000 people crossed the bridge yesterday. But here's the thing. You couldn't just turn up if you felt like it, you actually had to sign up online in advance of the event to get a timeslot to walk across the bridge. I've got absolutely no idea how they managed to deal with that on the day - but there you go. All the people that walked across were given (I presume they wouldn't have actually paid) a bright yellowy-green baseball hat - the likes of which you would never ever choose to buy - or wear. But there they all were, all parading around Sydney with these hats on - it was traumatic.

I did think about walking the bridge on the day, but since I've already walked across it before (see New Years Eve report) I guess there's not so much novelty value. And besides, the baseball cap was a fashion no-no, so I didn't miss much.

Fire!

So, I am just about to leave work for lunch and I get into the hallway where I have to get the lift. And suddenly there's all this whooop-whooop noise. People are milling around waiting for the lifts, completely unconcerned that the fire alarm appears to be going off. So while I weigh up the idea of taking a lift or walking down the stairs it carries on and everyone else is carrying on like this is completely normal. Ummmm.....

I decide I'll take a chance and get the lift and, thank god, I am delivered to the ground floor with further ado.

So I nip off to lunch - across the road from work there's a little food court area where you can get food and sit out in the sunshine. I'm sitting there eating my very very unhealthy bacon and egg roll and all of sudden I'm hearing fire engines - christ the building really was on fire!!!

I'm expecting about a dozen fire engines to come storming by any second, when in fact it was just one, about the size of a mini - and all this 20 minutes after the fire alarm even started..... false alarm anyone???

It appears that on the 14th floor they can't turn the alarm off where it originally started. And they're sending everyone back into the building to get one with the job despite the fact that half the building is left deafened by a continuous wohoop-whooop. Luckily I've got my ipod so all I can hear right now is Blondie.

I wonder if they ever did manage to turn off the alarm....

Testing Testing

Apparently I can post to my blog via email, which would be immensely handy given that less and less I have time to sit down at the PC and actually write something meaningful. I find I've got about 10 stories saved up to tell but as soon as I type in my username into blogger I instantly forget them.

So this is to test whether the blog via email will work. I think it won't save my default posting settings, but I guess that's not a big deal, I can tidy up the blogs on the occasions where I do get the chance to sit down in front of the PC.

Oh well, this is the test, lets see how it goes.....

Update:
It works, but it doesn't actually do the post, it saves it as a draft you can then update. What a good idea. Love it.

Moving, still a nightmare.....

I got a text late last night from the flatmate-to-be. His current flatmate isn't moving out. Once again I have nowhere to live.

This sucks. I am looking at serviced apartments at the moment - they are expensive, but they have all you need without having to commit to a long term lease. Time has passed so quickly.

This weekend has been really stressful, for reasons I won't go into. Although work is boring, I'll be glad to get back to it on Monday.

However, the weather promises to hit 30 degrees tomorrow so I'm going for Yum Cha in the morning and then hitting the beach. A good way to spend a Sunday I reckon. I tell you what, I'm going to miss the proximity to the beach when I return to blighty.

Moving, nightmare....

Well, I got a text from the guy who I'm meant to be moving in with to tell me that his current flatmate hadn't found anywhere to live yet and 'he understood if I didn't want to wait'. Do you think that means he changed his mind, or she's not moving out at all??

Moving soon

Well, apparently everything's on course for the moving to a new place this weekend. I have discovered though that already I have waaaay too much stuff than would fit into two suitcases. (See title...) It must be at least three suitcases, but as I don't actually have another suitcase I can't accurately measure it. Plus, I'm not sure how exactly I've managed to accumulate so much, it's not like I've bought loads of stuff. I mean I've bought some stuff, but still. Anyway, I will have to consider this when making my way home.

I took the last couple of days off work, it's been great. I need to finda way to earn a load of cash without having to go to work. Ideally, it would also be legal, obviously. Sadly, the weather was cold today (22 degrees) so I couldn't really go to the beach, so I stayed in (at my friends house - not the backpackers!) and watched TV pretty much the whole of the day.

Yes, today I have been a lazy bitch, but you know, it's not called 'holiday' for nothing.

The Mardi Gras Parade and Party

The deal is this:
8pm: A parade goes from the centre of town to the area where they hold the parties. The streets are packed with people watching the parade, it's a bit like the Notting Hill carnival, but not in the daytime.

So then the party kicks off at 10pm and ends at 8am the next day.

Suffice to say I had a stonking hangover on Sunday and ached all over where I had been dancing around like an idiot with the glowsticks - I know, it's mortifyingly 1990's but all good fun.

So Sunday came around and I was feel very delicate. Although it wasn't majorly sunny, we decided to hit the beach as it was hot, so thinking it would be quiet we went to Bondi, thinking everyone else would stay away. We got there early and it wasn't too busy. Anyway, not an hour later but it was glorious blue skies and sunshine. By the time we left it was packed, you couldn't move for towels.

See Bondi for yourself on Google earth, which is so cool, they've just released new pictures of Sydney which are quiet detailed.

See here, you can zoom in, it rocks. Link to Bondi on GoogleMaps

Living like a backpacker......

I have also had to check into a backpackers for a week while the people I've been staying with have had house guests. It's a shocking way to live and not up to my usual standards. Call me old fashioned or just old, but I like to think that windows have a window covering of some description and, radical, a matress which doesn't have bed springs coming through the cover.... Yes, it's very classy.

However, I'm sure that it's good for the soul or something to experience these things and with any luck normal service will resume in the fullness of time.

Mardi Gras and Priscilla

In case you didn't know, this weekend is Mardi Gras (apparently the biggest tourist attraction in Australia) so I have been embracing the gay culture by going to see Priscilla Queen of the Desert earlier this week. It was phenonemal, the music was really good and the costumes were amazing - it was generally just very good. But this weekend, as I say, is Mardi Gras, so this means a parade followed by a number of discos (listen to me, I sound like I'm about 60..... they're clubs really). Sydney looks like every gay man on the plant with an income has descended upon it - which is entertaining as they are all very body concious.

But anyway I'm going to boogie with the gay boys tonight wearing a ridiculous pink outfit (obligatory apparently) - after all I am a tourist, I should go to the biggest tourist attraction really.