Long Time, No Gossip!

Hi!

Well. Been a little while, hasn't it? Many apologies for the radio silence - can't say much has been happening worth reporting tho, so you haven't been missing anything, but more on that later. But we're here now - it's a glorious spring day, summer is trying to stick its nose in early, but so far so good. The jacaranda trees are coming up in full purpley bloom, including the tree off my balcony, which I had no idea was a Jacaranda tree until it started to bloom. Yay! But it's a shame it's only so pretty for just a couple weeks, then I'll spend the rest of the year sweeping up tiny little leaves..... Ahhhhh, small price to pay to live next to such a big, pretty tree! And hey, it sure beats palms full of possums! But today is lovely - a bit of a warm breeze, few clouds puffing away up there, the birds are out and about happily chattering away and running their Sunday errands. Yesterday afternoon I had a zippy little Lorikeet slam itself into my little window in the living room. Poor little bird. I had a look and he'd flown away; but I could see how it thought the window was just more trees - the reflection from their view just looks like more trees. I felt bad but was happy to see it just shook it off and flew away, probably with the biggest headache of its life, not to mention all the shit his friends must've given him. And now the chores are all done, the dishes are churning away in the dishwasher (so awesome to have one of these again), the laundry is out there on the line flapping in the breeze and hopefully dodging birds with weak bladders..... We have the hip n' groovy jazz tunes, tho SkyFM has since re-branded itself as Radio Tunes. Don't know why, money from big corporate sponsorship probably (wait for those ads to start)..... It's kind of a shame because I liked the whole SkyFM brand thing. But for now the tunes are all still good and reliable. And last but not least, we of course have a very nice, cool glass of another contender for the good ol' stand-by white wine, Vasse Felix Classic Dry White (Semillon Sauv Blanc - not bad at all), so life is goooood!

So work. Yep. Have been busy. Like, busy. Which is probably another reason

why I haven't had the energy or brainpower to check in these last few weekends. I mean, I don't mind, I like being busy, but so busy when I get home am asleep (unintentionally, much as I like mah new couch) by 7pm and come the weekend I have zero energy to do more than the chores and to change the DVD/Blu-Ray........ OK, that's not quite true, but you get the drift. But work is good, tho still can't say the same about our new "open plan" office - it still sucks, and how. But we do quite like our "new" neighborhood, being right in the middle of the city - so much good food, groceries and shops. Tho things will get uber tricky come the G20 - our building has two main street entrances - one across the street from the Hilton, which will be packed I'm sure with delegates and their handlers, and on our other side, the main headquarters/building for Queensland Health, where, oddly enough, I used to work just before landing this gig. That's only a biggish deal because both the Ministers for Health and Mental Health live there, so, bound to be the site of a protest or two. And speaking of potential protests, we also share our building with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, (and, incidentally, where I'll need to go to collect mah new Australian passport when it finally comes through some time next year or early the year after!!!!), so, they're at least certain to have one or two little dread-locked, patchouli-wearing hippies waving placards outside and shouting, hopefully without the bullhorn..... It should be interesting to say the least. I don't think we're sign-posted anywhere but on the list of building ingredients near the elevators, tho I'm sure there's a profiteer-hating protester somewhere out there who will find us. Apparently, we're having guards (armed??) on both entrances checking IDs and stuff...... Not sure when that little nod to paranoia kicks in, soon tho I'm sure - the G20 officially kicks off on the 15th and 16th of Nov, but the mayhem and paranoia is already building up. Thankfully, we get that Friday the 14th off........ Watch this space......!

And then there's been a few weekends in there........ Like, lots of them. Am really sorry for not checking in. A few of those weekends, since returning from

mah trip, have been burned up just trying to get computer stuff updated and transferred - never a straightforward affair. So, after a few hours of chasing my IT tail, I'd give up, along with my will to check in and say howdy. And then I had problems with my trusty camera not wanting to play nice with any of my computers, so that took a couple weekends to figure out - turns out no one would talk to each other because the camera's SD card was full. Huh. And just general IT stuff has been sucking what brain fumes I have left at the end of the week. And too, not a lot has been happening...... Let's see..... Oh, duh, last night I had my friend Kim and her husband Carlos and their little baby Luna over for dinner (of course I forgot to take pictures). That was special because they were the first friends I've had around since I lived at my nice place in Spring Hill, going on 7 years or so ago. I hated having people around The Palace because it was small and dumpy, even tho I did the best I could with what I (and Ikea) had, I was still embarrassed to have anyone around. So now I finally get to repay all the dinners and BBQs folks have invited me to over the years. And it was fun! Tho my cooking timings were off - totally gotta work on that. But it was just really nice to be able to hang out like normal folks in a normal space with normal chairs and to be able to cook in a normal kitchen......! I must say, I'm digging this apartment.

And speaking of normal chairs - one weekend was taken up with a trip to Bunnings, originally for two things - a drip tray for my Frangipani (Plumeria) tree so whenever I watered it it didn't drip all over the balcony below mine, and some grass for Kona to nibble on. Well. Much like Ikealand, you can't get out of there for under $200 dollars, and I didn't. I ended up coming home with three cat grass plants and a container and soil to plant them in, a big container and more soil for mah tree, and a brand new three-piece patio set! I love it. And so does Kona. Pretty comfy, durable, easy to look at. Yeah. Digging the new digs even more now that I have a nice balcony to sit on comfortably! (Oh yeah, that window there behind the BBQ, that's the one that poor little Lorikeet drove into... Silly Lorikeet).

And what else..... Oh, last weekend I finally got organized enough and listed my big corner desk and that little bridging unit/wall shelf for sale on eBay. Hmmm. Well, the desk just left this morning for its new home (bye desk, will miss you!), and the shelf is supposed to go to its new home tomorrow evening sometime, hopefully. But ai yi yi, did I take a hit $$$ on those or what. All up I paid, roughly, $580 for both of them a couple of years ago, and they are in excellent condition. Yeah. Stupid auctions, I made a whopping total of $55 for BOTH of them! Yikes. But, if that's what the market will bear for used Ikealand stuff, so be it........ Bummer dude. I try to look at it this way - a nice gal and her grumpy guy came by today and took the desk away and gave me $45 bucks for not having to kick it down the stairs by myself - that's a win, surely! Sigh.

And that's about all that pops to mind for the time being......... All is really well tho. Spring is here, which means I'm not getting up for work in pitch dark, which is nice. The weather is beautiful, even more so from a decent apartment. Kona is happier here because he has room to run and get the crazies like he used to at the nice place in Spring Hill; and I dare say he's even losing a bit of weight now. I have room to breathe and privacy to rest without possums waking me up all night or neighbors wanting stuff from me every ten minutes, which I didn't mind but I kinda minded. So, really, moving has been good for both our healths (is that even a word)! Yay! Now you folks just have to c'mon down and check it out - I'll be here a while, I hope, so you have time to get planning!!!!

BYE!

J!