Hi!
Well. Time sure flies, eh? Sorry about that. I could've sworn I'd only missed a weekend or two....! Apologies for the radio silence. All's well here tho - the weather is lovely, bright and cool, the birds are happy out there flitting around running (flying) bird errands, got most of the chores done, laundry is happy spinning around in the dryer, kittehs are holding the chairs down on the balcony, I have a very nice sparkling rose from Jacob's Creek, got the hip n' groovy jazz tunes - yep, life is good!
So work. Yep. It's good. Not as busy as we've been in the past but we do have a very important bid to respond to, the one where we find out if we have jobs after the 20th of this December........! So we're all trying to help our Manager write the response. I can't say I'm any good at stuff like estimates and explaining our data management capabilities and processes, etc, but am trying. It's kind of nerve-wracking this whole 'sing for your supper' thing, but we can only respond as best we can and hope for the best....... Otherwise, I guess it's good that there are a few other successful programs around the place a few of us might find work in.... Gee, I hope I don't have to jump ship to another program (project), but if the alternative is "unemployed", another project it will be! But hopefully we say all the right things and the customer realizes they'd be fools to let us go! Otherwise, work is good. I work with some good folks (for the most part) and that makes everything bearable. And y'know, after what, nearly five years with the same job (!), the fact I still even have a good job to come to everyday is way bitchin' - gainful employment just never gets old!
And then there were a fair few weekends in there..... Hmmm.... I might start with this weekend and work back..... So, this weekend was pretty good. Friday night I headed over to my friend Julian's house for pizza and wine so we could get up stupid early to go on a hike (6am. For me, on weekends, getting up any earlier than 9am I consider stupid early)! We drove about 45 minutes south-west towards Beaudesert, to
a place called Wyaralong Dam, where we at first took the easy walk to warm up, then when the paths split and we had to decide between easy and uphill, I picked uphill - and it was worth it for the views once we got to the top! Turned out we'd picked the path that went along the Mt. Joyce ridgeline, which we later discovered, was one of their more "advanced" trails - and it hadn't even seemed that hard! Coooool! And I happily learned I am not as unfit as I expected, with only walking around town all the time and not in and over nature. Bitchin'. 
It was fun. We had a great day. And the even cooler thing of it was, besides having perfect weather, was that it didn't take as long as I expected, only 3 or so hours. And another even more bitchin' thing is I'm not even sore! Tired, but not sore. Cooooool! So hopefully we'll go on another one sooner rather than later - I really liked it! And then we came back to his place where our friend Linus joined us for BBQ and beers. It was a very good day.
And then earlier this past week, on Monday, I had my first class of swing dancing (Lindy hop, Charleston, etc)! The class goes once a week for 8 weeks, 
and it was fun! I'd done a swing/ballroom class back in NYC for a few months but haven't done it since. And the best part is, it's just at the top of the hill from my house, so not even two minutes away (that link says Fortitude Valley, but I'm doing the Paddington one, same class different venue (and dates))! And another good thing about the class is, it's pretty relaxed, the teachers (guy and a gal) are really cool, not snobby, and the other folks in the class all seem all right (so far); lots of different ages and quite a few folks showed up, maybe 30 or so? I'm not good at guessing that stuff (and I wasn't about to take pictures and feel even geekier). Who knows, maybe there'll be less folks this week, or more........ Either way, it only goes for an hour once a week and it's two minutes away - I can totally do this!
Otherwise, aside from a cool hike and fun dance class, there's not been a lot happenin'. Same ol' crap - work, home, work, home, chores and spacing out on the weekend..... You haven't missed much. But I'll try to check in more often and give you the update with how the class is going and with hopefully more hikes!
Anyways, hope you're all well up there. Qantas was recently having a sale on flights to here, flying in April next year or thereabouts. I thought that was 
exciting. Well, what I thought was exciting was that it was actually kind of affordable to come down here for once, and even better, the exchange rate is in the US dollar's favor - bonus! Because it's gonna be awhile until I can get up there again - am planning a biiig trip to Scandinavia over next Xmas! Yay for Winter Adventure! Well, all depending on how it pans out with work and if we get the project work or not....... But for now, I'll be here until next Xmas, so you have a whole year and a half, with the help of a good Qantas sale, to get yer butts down here! Yeeehaw, mates!
BYE!
J!
J!
