It’s been a lovelly day today, as I see all the bright blues skied sunshine through the office window, why is it always a great day when you are couped up, inside….What I wouldn’t give to have an atrium area with wireless access, where I can soak up some rays; whilst working on my laptop (which I don’t have yet)…..meh, it’s all good =p

This week is pretty much crunch week for me. As I will be registering with a certain company, parting with lots of cash, so they can approach the UK courts on my behalf and I can be rid finally of my house. 1 year of pain, in return for a chance at a proper life =p I guess insolvency still has a bit of a stigma attached to it, but it is the only sensible thing I can do at the moment, and in an effort to show I have good intentions I am about to move to some new digs that actually save my monthly outgoings, is closer to work etc….

In other news I reckon we are headed for an absolute scorcher of a summer!!! I really need to start working out proper so I can (possibly for the first time ever) sculp a nice set of abs for the beach =p I’m certainly not doing too bad with the old weight loss stuff….remind me to upload a new pic soonish….maybe when I have my abs eh??

This last ten days has been pretty cool, whilst I didn’t go out and party “every” night like some of the younger chaps and chapess’s in the band, I did manage to do quite well, finished reading Manda Scott’s “Dreaming the Bull” from the Boudica Series, now I am on the final installment! I also managed to meet up with Nicole who used to work with my sister in Hong Kong. Rather than rattle on though I’ll share a couple of pic’s from my trip with ya!

I guess I have a thing for architecture, especially if it’s something not quite of the norm! This building in Brisbane just kind of stood out to me as worthy of a pic!

This was taken on the South Side near Victoria Bridge facing North, one of the many bridges that spans the river that meanders through Brisbane. In this photo you can see the mix of old and new buildings in this metropolitan place.

This interesting walkway is what I believe to be the entry to the South Bank Parklands, you can almost imagine a line of Elephants rasing there trunks!

This is a picture taken of Burleigh Heads, which is about 25 mins South of Surfer’s Paradise, where I had a bite to eat and strole with Nicole.

This is a little way up “The Heads” looking out across to the Surfer’s Paradise area, ok techincally I think we are looking at Broadbeach but I won’t split too many hairs…

Not sure if you saw this guy in the last pic, just a quick reminder of some of the nasty creepy and possibly dangerous things that live in Australia, apart from Dame Edna of course!

These are the not so dangerous, but strange enough to see roosting up a hill in a tree?! A bunch of “Bush Turkeys”, well it ain’t no Koala but it’s something I guess?

This is the view across to Surfer’s Paradise from Burleigh Heads, and ok ok! It was a bit of an overcast day, so I’ve done a little photoshopping to spruce the pic a bit, coz it was looking a little lame =p

Finally a pic of me and Nicole, I’m showing what’s left of my spare tyre round the waste, but the weight continues to drop~! Thanks to this break I have finally gone below 16 stone! Which = about 100Kg for the Imperially Challenged =p Not bad considering I was near to 120Kg when I moved out to NZ huh!

A couple of rather conspicious highlights from my break - ordering three bottles of wine and a bottle of bubbly on room service in Brisbane after we won the B Grade, and I still am unable to remember when I lost consciousness…o.O

And getting lost somewhere in Surfers Paradise, and not getting back to the appartment till 5.30am - if that wasn’t enough?! I was still a bit tanked and boosed, and lost ALL ability to use a key, in the end I resorted to climbing the balcony to open one of the patio doors, this worked but only after to tenth attempt.

Good times!

More in a physical sense than philosophical, or emotional. BAM!! It hit me this evening as I walked back to my bedsit; after spending a pleasant day with friends (Keith and Lyn from UK), it’s simple too! I looked up at the clear night sky, and saw stars which didn’t look familiar, I couldn’t make out little ‘Casseopia’ or ‘The Plough’ all the stars and constellations were alien to me…it was nearly enough to give me that vertigo feeling too! First time I’ve properly looked at the night sky without the clouds to obstruct my view…and you know what? I saw ‘my’ starsign - Saggitarius proudly dominating the sky for the first time in my life! This kinda made things ok again for me

Whilst I feel settled, and enjoy it here, it’s the little things like this that often remind me ‘I’m not in Kansas any more’; course I’ve never been to Kansas either…possibly flown over it maybe? But hey!! It’s a figure of speech, so I’ll stick with it.

We went for a meal last night with ’said’ friends and I tried ‘Kangaroo’ for the first time, which is presented like steak - right down to the peppercorn sauce! I must admit despite having a usual aversion to liver, this was ok! It was like eating liver without the liver texture that always puts me off? I’m amazed I remember as much, because we managed to drink a fair bit of alcohol, and I only just made the last train back from town to suburbia…

Got one more day off work tomorrow, so I intend to use it as productivly as I can, gonna ring the band hall (UK band and surprise em all) and say hi, then once I’ve sorted some water out, and my backpack I’m gonna break in my new walking shoes (Gortex Treksta’s) by heading up to Lowry Lookout again it should be a good day weather wise too, then I’ll head back chill out and go to band practice.

….soooooo close!! I’m nearly at the 15 Stone something point, actually I’m bang on 16 Stone, not bad considering 4 months ago I was 18 Stone! I’ll stop trying to lose weight when I hit about 13.5 to 14 Stone so I guess another 4 months to go! ;P

Yesterday was fairly eventful - had my brass lesson at 9am, followed by a nice ridgeline tramp up to Lowry lookout and back, I really pushed myself too, did it in less than 2 hours which is all part of my master plan; on the downside, I need some proper walking shoes as my old trainers managed to inflict a couple of blisters on me. I wandered into town after I got back, grabbed a new belt (I’ve lost so much weight I needed to!)… Oh and I treated myself to an electronic (KORG) metronome - I could use my PC but then that’s not quite so portable - for when I practice my fingering exercises and test pieces.

Today - LAZED in the morning till about lunch; then went to collect my laundry which I dropped off at some point yesterday… came back chilled whilst merrily breaking my PC using Partition Magic 7 (so I can dual boot Linux again) then managed to be late for band rehersal through an intricate series of txt chinese whispers! Managed to beat Andrew Weir there though who was the source of mis-information lol! Had a good blow, but I know I could have played better - my head wasn’t really ‘there’ tonight having just broken my PC…(now fixed btw!)….sigh, and now I’m gonna end the evening by chilling out watching the Robert Redford/Dan Akroyd/Ben Kingsley; Classic - “Sneakers”

Ah the joy…. :happy: