My computer lives to see another day - but then what is life?

There was thunder and lightning on friday night - it was quite impressive to watch. I'd just finsihed watching a movie with some friends and we went and stood the little undercover patio/verandah thing at my house - slightly surrounded by washing - admiring the lightning while drinking our cups of tea. Of course, I didn't give another thought to things like... computers being switched on! Later, after Jack and Ruth went I tried to check something - and my desktop which has its moments of being clunky and slow but is actually an old friend wouldn't do anything. I spent hte last few days thinking it might be dead - or just need ANOTHER new power supply.. and even got one from my cousin (who tells mehe got 4 for $10 from ebay)! But just as I faced the daunting though not particularly hard task of unplugging it all and undoing the case etc, I just tried swapping it to a different powerpoint! And now it works... hurrah! Ok... possibly Jack suggested just checking... but I'm glad all the same. And I really should back up anything of importance just in case!!

The movie we watched was Ghost in the Shell - apparently a classic anime. It wasn't as cheerful and happy as some of the Studio Ghibli ones I've seen, but was enjoyable anyway. There were some philosophical elements - what is life-AI, human genes which are basically programs anyway, etc. It was interesting that they quoted some familiar Biblical snippets-'When I was a child, my speech, feelings, and thinking were all those of a child. Now that I am a man, I have no more use for childish ways.' And also something about seeing now only as a reflection, but later seeing in full. About life and people, the 'evil' 'Puppet Master' said:

'It can also be argued that DNA is nothing more than a program designed to preserve itself. Life has become more complex in the overwhelming sea of information. And life, when organized into species, relies upon genes to be its memory system. So, man is an individual only because of his intangible memory... and memory cannot be defined, but it defines mankind.'

I picked up the ticket for the southern roots festival the other day (it had come registered post). In the mean time, I've been invited to a wedding (Cathy and Tom) the same day... ARRRGGHHH!! I think I'll go to wedding at 11, reception in cygnet afterwards and try to be back to showgrounds for festival for late afternoon. Hopeuflly I won't miss any of the big stuff - it opens at 10, but I am hoping it will take a while to kick off. I always seem to have clashes - I do do a lot of things, but there are days with nothing, and days with 3 things... doh!

Uni tomorrow... the only good thing is its a sleep-in compared to boot camp the day after. Actually, not the only good thing - it will be fun to be back into it, seeing people and having routine and so-on. Bring it on!

Running out of holidays...

...but still making the most of them!

On friday, Tahnee and I zoomed off in comfort (borrowed Mum's VW golf - which we think looks kinda hippo shape but she was offended when I said that) on our adventure to Bicheno. It was almost a year ago that we'd done a similar trip, only we'd just squeezed in 2 nights, arriving late and leaving early on the last day to return to uni. beautiful sunny day which was spent in a similar way... eating, drinking (warm day perfect for a beer or two!), visiting both the surf shops - had to make sure we supported the local economy. We spent a fair bit of the afternoon at the beach - a couple of dips, some time in the sun reading books and magazines.. bliss! Three of our other friends were camping further up the East Coast since thursday. We'd skillfully arranged for them to visit us on their way back - and our meeting timed perfectly: we were just walking up from the beach as they drove into the carpark. (Which luckily meant they'd deciphered my map of how to A whole year ago, and it was my first day... but now I'm a big grown up second year student.. next week I am anyway. This trip, we arrived on the Friday afternoon, relaxed, ate cheese and bisuits, drank Coronas and made our selves pretty comfortable. Saturday was a get to the beach!). Our sleepover was a great success - our veggie friendly meal of pumpkin gnochi with invented tomato, onion, red wine etc sauce, plus coleslaw when down well. An evening stroll to the gulch followed by *ahem* butterscotch self saucing pudding... which we of course could have made from scratch but.. hey at a shack its easier to just add egg and 3 tbs water!

There was plenty of lazing around time - reading, i did some random drawings and even played with some paints, we went for brief walks to the beach to make us feel less lazy, and we made sure to eat and drink at regulr intervals - otherwise we wouldn't get through all the food we brought with us! After another relaxing morning on monday, we packed up after lunch (and a quick trip BACK to the surf shop because I decided the other jumper I liked when I first saw it was worth it after all!). There were only a few stupid log trucks and slow rentacars to contend with on the drive home - and with Tahnee as dj, it was a pleasant return trip after avery enjoyable weekend. At home I discovered they've begun knocking down walls - well a wall, the one between rooms upstairs where they plan to put a kitchen. Not that there isn't already a kitchen but its a long story! Ah and.. they began knocking down the wall, removed plaster etc, but the studs are still there... and thats because it turns out to be a weight bearing wall.. ie IT'S HOLDING UP THE ROOF. They forgot about that. I guess it's the first of a number of the hiccups that occur when renovating old places. That and.. there's dust everywhere.

Today marked the beginning of what will most likely be a stupidly painful exercise, which for some reason I volunteered for. No, not volunteered. PAID FOR! And exercise it is. I am doing a boot camp. One of those things where you get up early, run around in the cold and wet, do push ups in the mud etc. Tahnee's boyfriend Andrew already did a 4 week one, and now Tahnee and I thought we'd join in this one - a friend of their's is running it. This morning was supposed to be the beep test - which you do again at the end to see how much you improve. Sadly (or not) the CD was skipping so we have that in store for thursday. Instead we did other 2 minute tests - push-ups, sit-ups, tricep dips, and then in theory, squat jumps. Everyone else did the squat jumps, but while counting Tahnee's tricep dips my field of vision started to go dark, and blurry, and close in on me... I sat down, but then thought instead it would be wise to dash to the bathroom. I'm hoping that it won't be repeated - but there definately was nothing but water in my stomach!

FIVE whole days left before university starts.. and I'm counting. But now I should head to mum's place for lunch with her, Hamish, and Hamish's parents before they leave for home (UK) tomorrow after their stay here over Christmas.

puddling along

Holidays are still puddling along. They feel as though they are going quickly - suddenly its feburary. But then, I've done quite a bit in some ways. I had Aquatics last week - my annual sailing cap. That was great fun-I'd convinced a few camper aged friends to come along. In the week before camp we managed to recruit enough campers to bring it from 10 to 20 - which made the 14 leaders slightly less excessive. But we did have 4 babies under 3 to look after, plus we did all the cooking ourselves. We had it at a new sight as well, so that took some extra consideration - and then, it was excessivley windy most days so our usual days on the beach with sailing required reconsidering! We re-invented the timetable as we went - filling it with alternative activities such as Hastings pool, murder mysteries, softball on Australia day (grass was too long for planned 20-20 cricket!), sleep in followed by French toast and pancakes on the bbq, and plenty of general laid back chill time. Anyway, the usual crew of leaders were good fun to be with, as were teh mix of campers - some familiar to Anglican Camping, and other new faces. There were 4/5 player games of spit/speed (even more concentration required than the normal 2 player), mountain boards being towed behind a 4wd, surf kiyaking, sprint4mint sunday, and plenty more fun.

On the saturday, mid-camp, Mark and I drove back from Southport to Margate for the wedding of some friends of mine. It was lovely, although sort of odd to adjust from camp mind-frame to not and then back again later. The reception at Home Hill was very enjoyable - a good meal, and some amusing capers with our table.. but then you wouldn't want to have a boring set of photos from the disposable camera provided on the table.. and they'll know it was table 5! (Though they may not have needed to remember what the toilets looked like...)

Since then I've been back in the real word, catching up on sleep, organising tax stuff, reading Terry Pratchett books, watching movies, eating icecream and so on. As it happens, Mark and I broke up the day after camp, which may explain the extra girls afternoons, nights, movies, ice-cream etc... Mum and Katherine (aunt) took me out for lunch one day, I met up with Tahnee for the afternoon on friday, and she came around again on Sunday, stayed the night and came out for breakfast with mum and I today, and Ruth brought icecream on saturday. Although this (the breakup - or the icecream for that matter) wasn't my decision, Ruth has given me a tick of approval and says I'll be ok - and I agree. I was sad, and it is a shame because there seemed to be a lot of good things about us being together, however it seems it was not to be. We both want to keep being friends, although time will tell exactly what that looks like - but we'll manage. I'd want that, even if Hobart wasn't so small that with overlapping Christian and Med circles we are bound to see each other!

Meanwhile, life goes on. And I've read 'Light Fantastic', part of 'Mort', watched Anchorman, Napoleon Dynamite, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, and The Break Up, I went to my cousins for dinner wednesday, out for lunch thursday, lunch and dinner friday (as well as to a gig with Attic Grooves and Miso), was at the sailing club on saturday, and at someone's house for lunch on sunday before going to Savoy baths... so I've been keeping busy!

And looking ahead, Tahnee and I want to go to Bicheno, and THIS looks fun: