104 HotFM

Hi!

Well. Here we are again. A warm Sunday afternoon. Thankfully there's a breeze. There wasn't one yesterday. It was 104 with roughly, thankfully, only 63% humidity. Summer's last hurrah. Man. It was h o t. It hasn't been that hot all summer, gross a few times, but not unbearably hot. It was yesterday. In the local lingo it was 40c - which is hot in their language. Today, muuuuch better. But, it's Sunday nonetheless...... Sigh. At least it's not 104 with 90% humidity!

So yeah. The week was good. Work is good, busy, but actually getting stuff done. All I know is, if there's a line-up of people waiting to kick Bill Gates, I so want a place in it. I could kill him (by kicking him - one for each Word headache I've ever had) for approving some of the ridiculous quirks in MS Word. At one point I was set back a week in my work with Bill Gates and his dorky bright ideas. But thank god I'm never the only one - get on Google, type your error message and about 200+ sites come up with folks who've had the same grief - plus ways to fix said grief. Is MS Word help as helpful? Oh, heavens no. That's one more big steel-toed kick for Bill. Anyways, I digress to rant. Work is good, tho I'm getting the feeling that they really are out of tricks to extending my contract. Five or so more weeks to go, so they could pull a rabbit out of a hat before my expiration date, but hmmmm. I live in hope but I'm even about out of legit ideas. My boss said the only other idea is that I could work for free. My, didn't we have a right good chuckle over that one?

And then the weekend. Ahhhhh. Monster Boy upstairs made sure I didn't sleep in and waste the day, making sure to stomp around at 5-6am - 'don't waste daylight!' the stomping seemed to say. And of course, as soon as I'm up grumbling about, he goes to sleep. Once I get a couple sticks of furniture I'm saving to break my lease.

Anyways, met Natasha and we had an adventure. Well, I did. We headed out to Springwood/Logan ('burbs about 25 minutes south of Brisbane) so she could get her hair cut and so I could make a banzai trip to Ikea to check out buying my couch etc. Well. Banzai was the wrong word for it. Who knew it would take 5 bus rides and about 3 hours there and back (to Springwood to meet Natasha)? Pain in the ass doesn't even begin to describe my adventure. I now know Logan like the back of my hand. Go on, ask me anything about Logan and it's suburbs, I can probably tell you. On some bus rides we went down the same street at least 3 times. I think most of my 3 hour adventure hinged on the fact that bus driver #3 didn't speak English, therefore he had no clue what I was asking him - "Do you go to Springwood?" Nod, then shake. "Logan Hyperdome?" Nod, then shake, "Kmart". "Kmart at Logan Hyperdome?". Nod. I got dropped off in one of the roughest parts of Logan, but there was a Kmart! Too bad it wasn't where I needed to be. And there's me at this bus stop, surrounded by drunk, tattooed men (and women) hauling my big, bright blue IKEA bag full of getting-heavier-by-the-minute stuff and a big one-piece chair cushion. If I had known how big a pain in the ass it was gonna be...... Still, in saying that, I had an adventure, it was air-conditioned (bonus, as it was 104 out), I saw places I'd never get a chance, or want to, see, and now I know. And in saying that, I could consider doing it again with hindsight and perhaps a little more research and planning. Maybe even get a cab for some of the leg of the trip. But my god, how desperate am I, really, to get to Ikea???? Ok. Not that desperate. But, I did acquire my couch and chaise covers (this being Ikea, everything comes in pieces. And as I was to find out, even my couch comes flat-packed, which I will hopefully buy next Saturday, if it's in stock). And I'm getting a chair but I couldn't carry the flat-pack frame, so I bought the cushion. The day ultimately resulted in reinforcing my will to go $25,000 into debt to buy a car.

And today, being so dragged out from my adventure yesterday, I'm doing nothing. Surfing the 'net (looking for work), reading Bill Bryson's autobiography "The Thunderbolt Kid" (very funny), keeping the cat entertained (even tho he's just dragged in another skink to torture), having root beer floats and then maybe I'll watch a movie or have a nap. Gasp, just looked at the clock and for doing nothing all day, the hours sure have flown - it's nearly 3.30pm!!!!! I better get busy with the other mindless tasks I have yet to do!

So there you are. Hope you're all well up there. Drop a line and send some pictures!

BYE!
J!