Memories

Part of my job is to visit different sites on a semi-regular basis. After a couple of visits I like to think people remember me and I can at least have a nodding acquaintance with the people on that site. Now I always have trouble with new names and I'm sure my "most difficult" name is hard for some people to remember.

What I don't understand is how some people don't seem to even remember meeting me previously. I went to a site on Friday morning to deliver a few things. Upon arrival I, once again, introduced myself to the receptionist. While this is a fairly quiet time of year and this site isn't exactly inundated with people, I'd have thought the last 4 or 5 times I'd visited and introduced myself I'd have at least received a "Oh, hi" or some other form of acknowledgement. But nope, not a batter of a eyelid. I tried to put this down to her being busy and me not being there every single day. But she's not alone.

I think I've mentioned previously about my invisibility to wait staff. Well I can now officially include sales staff in this list. While in a major department store over the weekend, I wandered into the high tech section ("Ooo, pretty lights and buttons") and started reading information, pressing buttons and generally making eye contact with the sales staff in a hope to get them to come and talk to me about their fantastic flashy things. No luck.

So after the 6th person had been served a head of me (4 staff on the floor and really it wasn't all that busy) I picked up the most expensive item I could find in front of me (a god awful mini stereo or something) and calmly wandered to another stand. Depositing the aforementioned stereo on this new stand, I looked around again - made eye contact with at least 3 different sales people - picked up the stereo and took it to the opposite end of their "area". Where by I almost tripped over a sales man kneeling on the floor attempting to sell the cheapest TV to an uninterested couple. The TV was less than the stereo I still had in my hot little hands.

So, when I picked up the stereo I may have dropped (a little) and handed it over to the sales man (still on his knees) I said something along the lines of "Well, I guess I won't be spending any money here today".

Then went off and spent a bucketload at another store where I was greeted and assisted within a few moments of walking in the store.

The weekend of travel and money

In response to Cathy's current entry - there are no second hand items, burkhas, or even dildos (perhaps a vibrator, but let me digress). There have been times I've attempted to surprise Cathy by doing or buying things for her. The last biggest case was the trip to Brisbane when she got back from Russia - the surprise I organised the day she left, the same surprise that lasted most of her trip away until she started getting pissed off that I wasn't answering her question of "Why don't you come up and see me in Brisbane?"

So when christmas rolled around I decided to get all my ideas down and do the shopping as late as possible. Also to give as many pointless hints as possible. Or perhaps not pointless, but not accurate.

When the weekend that just ended rolled around and Cathy went to Brisbane, my shopping skill had to kick into gear. My record so far has been 7 presents in 45 minutes. This christmas - 6 people in 1 hour ... the last person? Almost 5 hours.

Admittedly most of those 5 hours were driving. Oh, so much driving. But I got what I was after - and I even got some ideas for Cathy's birthday. Not to remember those ideas until her birthday!

Now to prepare for the "celebrations" and the holiday ... and to attempt to keep the magic alive just a little while longer for the most wonderful woman in the world.

I love you my dear ... and I hope that each of our christmases together are more special and magical than the last.

Post 70 ... yay!

Whenever I see (or write) the word "yay" it takes a long time to get a certain green frog out of my head. I think forever the word "yay" and uncontrolled clapping will take me back to early saturday mornings watching "The Muppet Show" and wondering what sort of children Kermit and Miss Piggy really would have.

Anyway, Post 70 - it's almost a mile stone, well actually I just realised I was in the high 60's the other day and tried to stay away from Post 69 (*snigger*). So, 70 posts and all seems well.

May 2007, that was post number 1 of this little corner of the interwebs I like to call my own. At least I like to call it something, "my own" is just the most acceptable. May 2007 I can't even remember much of what happened in that month. To be honest since 2001 the years really have flown by. From different career paths, to major relationship hurdles, to so many house moves it's not funny. I guess even since May 2007 I've had all of those as well. Perhaps I'll get to settle down soon?

He says hopefully thinking about the woman he is currently ensconced with.

So what do the next 4 months mean for me? Before my blog turns 2. Wow, a blog that is almost 2 years old. I'm not even sure how "old" my previous blog got to, I may have to investigate that one day.

The first thing that jumps to mind is my first holiday over the christmas period in quite a number of years - and the first "holiday" with Cathy (I doubt she'd class it as a holiday and looking at the "To Do List" she's already got for me, I doubt it also). Then there will be the job that I've had for more than 3 months (let's not talk about the job that only last 3 months and really I should have left sooner). And there will also be the lead up to dating someone for 12 months. Admitedly we've only gotten past the 6 month marker, but really from 6 to 12 months doesn't seem that long.

I'm sure there are many other things to do, be said, have done and plan for. Perhaps even shedding much more weight and gaining much more money? ...Yes, a boy can dream - get off my back!

I guess it's back to waiting for other people to finish what they need to do before I can do what I need to do - oh the joys of working on a friday night! The overtime better be worth it!

Crap!

Well it seems my wonderful attempt at blogging every day has slipped a little. Apparently people noticed over the weekend and made comment. Hey, stones and glass houses people - I don't see anyone else out there attempting to blog as much as I am!

Yes, that also includes Cathy ...

So today I've decided to blog twice - not only to catch up, but so I can hit my 70th post on here. Although with some of my posts being edited, I suspect I've made more than 70 entries.

So here I am in a very nice office in the city (7th floor has great views!) with 4 laptops around me, trying to do everything at once. I don't even get time to watch the progress bars float across the screen - how do they expect me to blog efficiently with no time to watch the pretty blue bars.

Perhaps I shouldn't be watching all the professional young ladies wander around the office as much.

Mmm, perhaps I shouldn't make comments like that either.

Ok, little update - I have a weekend of "singledom", well at least as close to "singledom" as I hope to have in the near (or far) future. With Cathy going to see her parents for christmas (apparently she's blaming my not going on lack of funds - but seriously, I think I've spent enough time with her parents in the past couple of months!) and me having to do a whole truck load of christmas shopping, I don't see how I'm going to be doing much of the "singledom" type things.

On that note - it's interesting at this time of year, how people assume that their family is fine and dandy to spend lots of time with. Yet on the other hand of other families, it's a drain and/or a bore. I guess it's just lucky that my grandmother isn't over this year and I get the "Come and spend Christmas Day with us" invite.

Well, back to watching lots of progress bars for me ... back later to blog about something even more interesting! - No, I have no idea what either.

Oops

Oops, I may have missed a few days. I may or may not have been getting intoxicated on Friday (work Christmas parties that start at almost midday are pretty cool in my book) - then Saturday flew by like nobodies business (didn't help that my family decided to have an impromptu bbq - on the wettest summer day I can remember). Sunday was probably the best day for blogging, but it just didn't seem right. I had things scheduled and any number of things fell apart to leave me wondering what was the point of scheduling them in the first place.

Then yesterday - Mondays really need to be stricken from the record. I mean really, is there any worse day of the week? Excluding Sunday of course which is the closest day to Monday.

So here I am on Tuesday without any blogging material that I really feel like airing in public.

Oh and apparently it's less than 10 days to Christmas day ... on yay?

18...19...20...

21%
I'm sitting here, on site, watching a status bar slowly crawl it's way across the screen. This is what, apparently, I get paid the big bucks for.

26%
If only I was paid big dollars. But then again I'm still only starting out, I mean to put my whole career into focus, I've done just over 1 decade. There's what - 4-5 more of those? Unless of course I strike it rich and marry, I mean work hard and earn lots of money. Lots and lots of money I suspect.

27%
I tell you it's not going to be by watching status bars crawl across the screen. Although I've done worse things with my time. Because I've been told to do them and because I really didn't want to do something I was told to do.

28%
I still think I've had a very decent career path so far - I seem to end up at the top of the pile. My first job as a "Forecourt Attendant" - when people actually "served" the customer at a "Service" Station - I was running my own shifts by the end of my first 6 months there. Not bad for a 17 year old.

31%
Woo, things got a little quick there for a moment. The next big thing I guess was running the McDonald's store. Admittedly this took me a little long (almost 2 years) but those big companies aren't exactly known for their "outside of the box" thinking when it comes to promoting people. I think the basic thought process went "Let's get this person to have the responsibilities of the next level up, without the rights or pay, for as long as we can - then just before they quit we'll promote them". Or in my case you get the store manager drunk enough and everyone loves you and won't say no.

34%
This is just getting crazy. Think I might just pack up and go home. Of course if that happens it's going to fall over at 99% and I'll be in royal shit. Not that I didn't warn everyone that might happen. But these things are never fun.

35%
What was after McD's? Oh that's right, the helpdesk job. I'll skip the little jobs I had to keep fuel in my car between these 2, but let's just say working 2 jobs and studying between the hours of 0430 and 2300 6 days a week is not fun. The helpdesk role - even though I've been through it, I still cannot stand idiots who man the phones. To articulate correctly (I even rolled the R's in my head when I typed that) is a very important thing to do - even when english isn't your first language. I don't get annoyed when people laugh at my crazy attempts at french, I just grin, look a little (more) stupid and try again - it's not their fault I can't speak their language, or they can't understand me.

39%
Fuck, things are right moving along now. I think 50% will be the time to make my peace with the world and go beat my head against the brick wall that is the traffic in Melbourne. At least what they call traffic.

40%
Time to sign off before I start rambling even more - this isn't good for me. Think I'll need to lie down somewhere. I wonder if the GM will mind if I stretched out on his desk. He's not using it at the moment.

Lol.

Once again into the fire

Once again I've started an exercise kick. I'm currently swinging around the 120/121 kg mark. So looking at my "starting" of 127 I don't feel that I've really lost all that much. I suspect the worst thing I did when I was exercising was not change my diet radically enough. Since then (ie since Cathy got back from Russia) my diet has changed for the better. Problem being I now sit on my arse more during the day and don't have a gym to go to after work (or the excuse of one anyway).

I'd been tossing around the idea for a while now, about the one hundred push ups challenge. Or as I like to call it "pushing this much weight has to be good for something". I worked through the different sorts of push ups last night and found the regular push ups were best for me. Well "best" as in I could do them, it actually felt like I was doing something and after 10 I was ready for a good lie down.

So there we go, I've scheduled myself in for the 100 push ups, apparently it "only takes 6 weeks". At least I know I can do push ups almost any where - and they are still free.

The 100 might even help with the other form of exercise - well, it might decrease the recent influx of complaints!

I tried ...

I tried to have a good blog entry tonight. I even got busy and did a few things (nothing seemed to work though? Odd). Seems tonight is just one of those nights where I start a few things but can't exactly get anything finished. Who knows, maybe tomorrow I'll be able to finish what I started?

Less reps, more sets

At least that's the theory. So, like exercising I'm going to use that with blogging. I'm going to type out (throw up?) whatever I can every day. Even if it's as long as this one is and just mentions that I'm still alive and screaming. Or is it kicking? I forget.

I have lots to post about from the weekend, but right now the 6 hours of driving between friday morning and saturday lunch time is catching up with me. Hopefully no one expects to get any sense out of me this afternoon. At least no more than usual.

Here goes nothing. At least a whole bunch of nothing that will hopefully get me into a routine of posting. Even if it's that I have a very pretty girlfriend when she frocks up.

A weekend of tapping

Since starting to date (and then live with) a woman who has a number of interests, this time of year will be an interesting time for me.

So far there has been the Tap Concert. 300 sets of tap shoes beating the hell out of the theatre flooring. A seat designed for an Oompa-Loompa and for some reason being able to be seated in a place that the lighting people decided needed to be lit at rather inconvenient times.

Aside from but physical harm, I must say - the concert was a blast! I'm not good at enduring tedious concerts (I may have fallen asleep at a few while at High School, so later in life will be fun!), but the tap concert actually grabbed and held my interest.

The end of year event always has a theme, this year was the body parts. Being a tap studio, there had to be music attached. The theme appeared to be very, very loosely followed in some cases. I'm still wondering how "Insane in the membrane" made someone suggest it. Then again with the inclusion of "I wanna wash that man out of my hair", I could have sat through another attempt from Cypress Hill to enough the girls and guys on stage to tap.

There were many classic moments - the infamous "Sausage Incident" won't be forgotten in a hurry (some have put this down to nerves, I think someone really did forget!) - the very enthusiastic young (ish) white gentleman in the bad afro wig singing along to "Your love still brings me to my knees - Marcia Hines" I still have trouble remembering what the tappers were doing on stage. I suspect they were too when the aforementioned gentleman ended up in his sequined underwear on stage. I may have laughed a bit then. I may have laughed enough to have the old fuddy-duddies next to me to try to lean away from me (positive for the tiny seats!).

The tiny little humans were so very cute. Although their tiny teacher trying to pass herself off as someone of their age (very, very young) really didn't do anything for the act.

As I'm sure most of my readers will be waiting for - the 2 routines that I waited with baited breath for. While I do have my favourite, I thought both were fantastic. It did take a little while for the audience (at least at the 2nd session) to catch on with the less than seriousness of the routine, but once they did it was all the better. "Young hearts run free" may not be a song I'm exactly up to speed with, but the tapping actually helped the song. Although the unfortunate (and insulting!) placement of the only boy on the stage (also the tallest person on stage) in front of a certain short girlfriend wasn't exactly pleasing to the boyfriend. I may have to have words before next year's placements are worked out. I must say that there was a lot more visible joy on stage the second time I saw this. I won't mention that this may have been related to the fact the show was almost over and it was almost time to collaspe. Nope, I will just say they all looked much happier. And ladies, please - learn the hand flick, seriously I want to see a much better one next year!

My favourite of the 2 was the rendition of a classic Meatloaf song. It showed the dynamics of the group, the seriousness that they take the skill required (even if they don't want to show it) but also the fun they have while together and learning. The closeness of the group is obvious when they are doing something they are really enjoying. Taking it as a whole performance, this act was the best of the bunch. People may accuse me of being biased, but these will only be people who were on stage and didn't have to, I mean didn't sit through 7 hours of tap shows in a 27 hour period. I know what I liked and I know that some of the acts too themselves way too seriously.

I was a little concerned before attending this concert. I had been dragged (kicking and screaming) to watch the DVDs of former performances, also comments of "It's wonderful that people of all shapes and sizes are able to get on stage" - not something you want to hear after the mention of the amount of stockings and lycra that may be on stage this year. But I was surprised - yes, there were people of all shapes and sizes, but they all did wonderfully, they all were happy (well, ok most were happy) and they entertained me in a very good way.

I'm not sure I'll be able to sit through the entire DVD, at least not at normal speed, but I think a recap of a select few routines are in order. I will be skipping the entire "Blister in the sun" act though, Mary Poppins is ruined for me forever. Those 2 images are not supposed to be anywhere near each other!

On a slightly seperate note - yes, I did attend 2 shows. Apparently the "worst" and the "best". While I found the "best" to be the most relaxed (I put it down to people knowing it was almost over) the "worst" wasn't all that bad and in fact had I seen them in reverse order (not exactly possible) I'd have said they were both as good as each other. I attended both shows for a number of reasons, the biggest being an attempt to surprise someone. I decided it may not have been the best idea to surprise someone on stage during a performance (I could almost hear the "What the fuck are you doing here again??") so the innocent look on my face and the "Yes dear?" when the 2nd ticket was found was good enough. I think Cathy may have skipped a little bit over the weekend.

So to finish my rambling for the moment - I find I much prefer an amateur performance that knows what it is and does it well, over a semi-professional performance that aims for professionalism but fails when it attempts the airs of something it is not. And really, guys and girls - tapping isn't exactly the most serious thing out there, perhaps picking something that shows how much you enjoy the doing rather than how much you have attempted to "learn" over the last 12 months (Yes, I'm looking at you "I'm gonna wash that man right out of my hair" tappers!).