how time fly's

Its been ages since I've had anything worth while saying. Not that that means nothing has been going on in my life because hell there has been heaps of shit going on. Just didn't know how to word it all. As a friend has said 'its all a bit steamy in the new daytime soapy we call our lives'.

Over the past few weeks I have watched the demise of the relationship between two of my good friends. It was a partnership that I thought would weather all that was thrown at it, and after being together for 8 years I was sure that it would continue to. But alas it's not to be, and now is the terrible and ugly break-up that can only get worse before either one of them finds themselves again to be able to move forward. Most of us have had their heart torn out of our chest, I included so I can sympathise to the point. But I have never shared the joy of living with someone I thought was my life long soul mate, so to stand by and watch the foundations of their lifestyle crumble and taking them with it, I can only guess the pain and the hurt that is going on inside. I can only be there and offer a shoulder to cry on and an ear to talk to. I don't want to be seen to be taking sides as they are both my friends and met them at exactly the same time, but with one now living closer to me than the other I find myself spending more time talking and being with one of them.

Part of this support has meant that every weekend I have been out on the town acting as chaperon. Don't get me wrong I love to party and have a great time, and I have had a great time. But boy its financially draining me more than I thought, only because I cant say 'no', so at the same time that I'm trying to reduce my outstanding debt from last years travels I'm out there shaking my booty on the dance floor until almost sunrise.

A couple of weekends ago I attended the birthday dinner and drinks of a dear friend Justin. It was a top night at a Indian restaurant eating fine food at their Bollywood - Curryoke Party Night. Get it. hehehe. I haven't seen any of the photos yet but will load some up if I get my hands on them.

But next week I'm back off to San Francisco to see my friends, to see my man, and to have a job interview. I have high hopes that this interview goes well as San Francisco is where I want to be right now. What this job opportunity has install for me I don't know. What other doors will be opened for me I don't know. But I'm excited about next week, and I already have every minute of every day that I'm there planned out. From dinners, to lunches, to happy hour drinks. Unfortunately I'm only there for 5 days, so I can't see everyone that I know in San Francisco let alone everybody I know in all the other cities. But at any time that I am idle I will be on the phone chatting. This better go my way as I need this right now and I want to spend some on-going time with Wilbur.

another week comes to an end

I thought I would have posted something by now, but the week has flown by. Could have something to do with having the first two days off work due to a drunken incident where I have come a cropper and bruised and injured myself over the weekend. Would love to share the excitement of it all, but i don't remember it and neither does any of my friends of whom i was with. All i can share is that I'm bruised, my knees are grazed and swollen and my mobile phone screen was badly cracked, which cost me $145 to get fixed. Daylight robbery if you ask me. But I couldn't walk Monday and Tuesday, probably due to the dancing until 7am Monday morning on my damaged knees, so i took the days of for a bit of R&R plus I as I just said I didn't get home until 7am. But I blame it all on Kate as I was out supporting her in her time of need, just as I'm again going to do tonight. I'll pretty myself up and be her support while we go straight clubbing.

But that's about it for the week, been pretty non eventful except for the fact that I'm dead broke and really cant afford to be out tonight or tomorrow night. So many bills and i just cant get ahead. Being out the past two weekends hasn't helped at all, and with being out tonight and with another friends birthday dinner tomorrow night, I need to put my own need to save cash behind me while i support Kate and have a nice meal with a good friend.

the week in review

Its Friday and thank god the weekend is just around the corner. Not that it's been a stressful week or anything, as just like it hasn't been for the past three months since being back home, work has been pretty down right boring. I still don't have a position and I cruise through the day trying to entertain myself. I'm happy enough to do just that if my employer is happy enough to pay me to do just that. Except that as of yesterday I could no longer log onto Myspace or Facebook. I wonder if someone has cotton onto the fact that people such as myself have been spending way too much time surfing these sites and as such have blocked them?

Our union body is ramping up its campain against changes that the Bank is trying to implement. Our union negotiated agreement expired back in December and the Bank has been avoiding all contact with the union over the past six months. Finally the Bank has approached staff about implementing a non-union agreement and boy hasn't it gone down like a lead balloon. Just prior to dropping this bomb shell the Bank cut out our staff home loans which has reduced peoples remuneration on average of around $11,000 a year, and they aren't offering any form of compensation for it. These changes have been brought about by the Australian Government forcing upon us new workplace reforms which have eroded the security for workers and have seen many unfortunate situations where families livelihoods have been torn apart. Its disgraceful and we do not want the industrial relations of places like the United States here in Australia. We have fought hard for the rights that we have and its not the governments place to strip us of those rights. The next few month or so are going to be full on with many staff ready to fighting for their rights at work.

I suppose it could be worse for me when you consider that here in Australia, a botched Brazilian wax was blamed for a Melbourne woman's life-threatening infection. The 20-year-old woman suffered excruciating pain, a fever and a rash extending to her chest, arms and neck. The injuries were so bad, doctors initially thought she had a flesh eating disease. Alarmingly, the woman was just one of 90 Victorians who went to hospital last year with waxing injuries.

I had my friend Kate over for dinner on Wednesday night. You will find Kate in photos in my Nth American blog. I went travelling with her and Andy in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and Brazil. The flu is making the rounds at the moment, and she had the first symptoms of it. Since then I have had a sore throat, and this morning Kate gave me a lift to the train station and she informed me that next will come the runny nose and coughing. I don't mind getting sick as along as it's not over a weekend. I'm all for chucking a sickie during the week, but don't ruin my days off. Kate, myself and a few others have plans to paint the town red on Saturday night so I need my strength and endurance.

Tonight I'm also catching up with my good buddy Adam. I haven't had the chance to sit down and talk with him properly for about a month now. So tonight's our night for a goss session. I also need to update him on my plans to move to San Francisco. He knows its in the pipeline and has asked me to bring a list of pros and cons, which I haven't done yet. I don't think I need a list as it's something that I have wanted to do for a long time, and I'm not happy here, my job does suck and I have an opportunity to turn all that around. So we'll chat over some dinner, drink a bottle of red and then head of to the bars for beers, get semi trashed and then call each other tomorrow to laugh about the shit we got up to.


But to end the week here is the most top rated story. A CHIHUAHUA puppy with an interesting fur pattern has proven that love can beat terrorism and murder. The little chihuahua that was born in Japan with a love heart pattern in its fur. The puppy, called "Heart-kun" is not for sale.

Four more weeks to go

About this time in four weeks I will be arriving back in San Francisco. This time not to party and see who I can meet out and about, but for a job interview. One of my objectives when I was travelling around on my Nth American Adventure during the past year, was to find myself a job that would allow me to work and stay long term on a sponsorship. Unfortunately I left my friends and the country without succeeding. All due to my own doing as I was having way too much fun for one individual.

But in the end it appears to be all falling into place. My application and resume was sent off last night to a potential employer in San Francisco, and my flights over for the interview are booked. Its all a little surreal. Could this actually truly happen for me? I suppose I will know in the not to distant future.

I'm looking forward to the chance to be with my good friends all over the north American continent, to base myself there so I can travel more easily or should I say shorter distances, and to get to know young William better and allow that to develop and see where it takes not just me but us both. Or will I fall into the same old routine and screw everything up and hurt people along the way. I don't intentionally do that but it appears from my last journey over there I did just that.

this rain just never bloody stops, so why Desal? There is nothing 'green' about it.

Sunday arvo those dark rain clouds started rolling in again. The past week of no rain was too good to be true. Those storms that hit hard awhile back were massive, and the downpour was enough to finally bring Sydney's dam levels back up form 38% to above 50%. The critical stage Sydney was at no longer applied in relation to it's water supply. So why is this State government pushing ahead with a stupid Desalination Plant? It's a energy consuming, environmentally destructive, and costly infrastructure. Pump the money into harvesting drain water runoff, into better water management by the State government, into fixing the current infrastructure that looses more water to waste than anything else.

The salt that is going to be extracted from this desalination plant is going to be dumped back into the ocean, creating a high densely concentrate that is going to kill off all marine life within the vicinity's. Its going to create another 'Dead Sea'. What craziness goes on inside politicians heads when they know this is not what the public wants. Do the right thing and look into the current infrastructure and fix those leaks, fix those inefficiencies.

Also the simplest things can be done at home. Invest money into financial backing of homes to install their own water tanks to catch rain runoff from roof tops. Invest funds into recycling 'grey water' and having that water flush toilets and water gardens and council ovals and parks.

The work on the Sydney desalination site has already begun, and it begun prematurely. The government promised it would only begin when Sydney's dam levels fell below 33%. It never got there and is now above 50%, and yes its been raining non stop for the past 24 hours. All that run off could be captured and directed away for storage. The government lied. They rant and rave about the jobs its going to create and how it will secure Sydney's water supply. All its doing is trying to secure their own jobs by buying a small number of votes.

Another arguement is that the NSW Government has a conflict of interest over the supply of water. Essentially the government does not effectively encourage a reduction in water use because it derives so much income from its sale.

Desalination: taking the plunge

Greenhouse implications of the proposed Sydney desalination plant

For those who enjoy a good fart joke

Good old YouTube: matrix fart

Film Lovers Will Love This

The European Commission launched its own channel on YouTube last week saying it wanted to spread messages about topics such as climate change and human rights.

The clip - titled "Film Lovers Will Love This!" - has been viewed more than 280,000 times, while the next most popular video on the EUTube channel - a humanitarian aid clip called "Reaching out to lend a hand" - has fewer than 30,000 views.

Eighteen couples, both homosexual and heterosexual, are shown having sex in bedrooms, kitchens and restaurant bathrooms. As the groans build to a climatic finish, the phrase "Let's come together" flashes on the screen.

You got to love it!