Monday, February 28, 2005
weekend away
this last weekend, we went to a friends wedding on the south coast. it was a planned event, but the whole affair was quite casual in dress in ceremony and setting. it all took place at a beach house, that backed up to the beach in a little town on the south coast of NSW called Culburra. i had a good time- plenty of good food and drink. in the evening we went back to the camp site in which we pitched our tent, and crashed. we camped so we could combine the drive out of town, with a solid feeling of getting away. it worked.
on the drive down and the return drive the following day, we made multiple stops to check out furniture shops. we are searching for a chest of drawers. we have seen a few that we liked, but no the price. too much of the furniture was way over priced. both cherry and i feel we could get a better price on some things. however, to make mattes slightly more complicated, we are looking for a piece that is a specific size and height. so that adds to the challenge. although what we want is out there.
now we are back in the city to our house, which we are finally beginning to enjoy. over the last month, it seems we have spent more time consumed in other areas, rather than at home. but now the focus has changed.
on the drive down and the return drive the following day, we made multiple stops to check out furniture shops. we are searching for a chest of drawers. we have seen a few that we liked, but no the price. too much of the furniture was way over priced. both cherry and i feel we could get a better price on some things. however, to make mattes slightly more complicated, we are looking for a piece that is a specific size and height. so that adds to the challenge. although what we want is out there.
now we are back in the city to our house, which we are finally beginning to enjoy. over the last month, it seems we have spent more time consumed in other areas, rather than at home. but now the focus has changed.
back to school
well after nine long years, i have done it. i have gone back to university. today was the first day of class for me as a graduate student. i am studying to get my teaching diploma. because of all the financial burdens life and time has put upon me as an adult, i am studying part time over the next two years. big deal. i am thinking that it will be a challenge, but also partially a breeze. it won't be rocket science, i know. i don't want to jinx myself here, by stating "i think it will be easy," but it will certainly not be as difficult since i am only doing part time study. it will drag on though.
so this morning, i drove to campus and found the parking lot and was totally shocked to learn that the parking was free and there was plenty of it. take that UC Santa Cruz and your gestapo parking patrol. so that was a brilliant beginning to my new academic career at UTS Kuring-gai.
i must confess that i did have first day jitters. my stomach was all knotted up and i was not wanting to go to school. i felt like it was the end of summer vacation and i was heading back to junior high. however, in the end, it was a painless 2 hour lecture and i was out of there and back to work on the beach for the afternoon. so summer wasn't entirely over for me, now that school has returned. and the water was so warm, it felt like silk. march is the best month in australia. i tell it to people all the time. and it is true.
so this morning, i drove to campus and found the parking lot and was totally shocked to learn that the parking was free and there was plenty of it. take that UC Santa Cruz and your gestapo parking patrol. so that was a brilliant beginning to my new academic career at UTS Kuring-gai.
i must confess that i did have first day jitters. my stomach was all knotted up and i was not wanting to go to school. i felt like it was the end of summer vacation and i was heading back to junior high. however, in the end, it was a painless 2 hour lecture and i was out of there and back to work on the beach for the afternoon. so summer wasn't entirely over for me, now that school has returned. and the water was so warm, it felt like silk. march is the best month in australia. i tell it to people all the time. and it is true.
Sunday, February 20, 2005
thunder and thunderbolts
it is raining. has been for two days now. lots of lightening and lots of rain. it is all so nice. just wish i didn't have to venture outside in it. i would prefer to stay in bed and sleep and read all day long.
anti-semitism indeed
get this. the attorney general for australia, one phillip ruddock, has two daughters. one of which it seems was dating a jewish man who worked for the isreali consulate in canberra (the capital city of australia). in other words he was a diplomat, banging phil's daughter. when this diplomat was invited over to the family house for dinner on christmas day, let us just say, the shit must have hit the fan in the ruddock house. because, two days later this jewish diplomat was deported from this god fearing, chirstian, bible thumping, right wing, neo-fascist, racist, country back to his isreali home land. mind you he was dubbed as a spy. but i think that was only a below the belt parting shot.
afterall, phil ruddock is the same person who is personally signing bills to lock up children, under the age of 5 years old, in detention centers in the middle of the australian desert, and labeling these kids as terrorists. these children are now 8 years old going on 9.
come on phil ruddock, if we are to believe those kids are truly terrorists, then i guess i must believe the jew is a spy. if you say so phil, then it must be.
afterall, phil ruddock is the same person who is personally signing bills to lock up children, under the age of 5 years old, in detention centers in the middle of the australian desert, and labeling these kids as terrorists. these children are now 8 years old going on 9.
come on phil ruddock, if we are to believe those kids are truly terrorists, then i guess i must believe the jew is a spy. if you say so phil, then it must be.
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
i have climbed the highest mountains
holy shit. it has taken me ages to get back online and blog. i nearly had to part the red sea to get here. i have battled fierce lions, tackled a bear, wrestled an alligator, crossed the busiest highway 17 times, drank poison, walked on coals, wind storms, snow storms, and fought off crazy horned up nymphomaniac women, all this in order sit down and type a few words. well i am back. for how long? well that depends on when the computer will throw another fit and force us to actually pull our finger out and buy a new one. but until then we will battle on with the one we have.
so i have tonight, just enrolled for university, officially. i have done this online, and am now booked in for orientation day on the 23rd of february. school will start sometime in the early parts of march. hooray. i will be a student once more. this time of mature age, but still hanging out with the (much) younger coeds. what a life!
earlier we watched the film, the world according to garp. it was my first time seeing it. i remember when the film came out when i was just a young pup. it is a film that i have always wanted to see, and am certainly glad i finally did see it. a wonderful film. i recommend it to all people of a mature age. it reminded me of the story of hamlet in alot of ways. glenn close as the mother... just kidding. but rather the story was very life like, full of tradgedies, a few triumphs, close friends, and others to stab you in the back, and in the end, you die.
it is past midnight here. i haven't stayed up this late in a long long time, especially on my own accord. due to the online registration and the computer malfunctioning i had to contend with earlier, and the movie that is why i am still here. plus my over riding self guilt trip of not submitting an entry lately. so good-bye and goodnight.
oh yeah, one more thing. john howard is a short, bald guy, with a very small penis and an extremely ugly wife, he cannot be trusted on any topic whatsoever, and he willingly licks george bush's ass (and george loves the feeling of it too).
so i have tonight, just enrolled for university, officially. i have done this online, and am now booked in for orientation day on the 23rd of february. school will start sometime in the early parts of march. hooray. i will be a student once more. this time of mature age, but still hanging out with the (much) younger coeds. what a life!
earlier we watched the film, the world according to garp. it was my first time seeing it. i remember when the film came out when i was just a young pup. it is a film that i have always wanted to see, and am certainly glad i finally did see it. a wonderful film. i recommend it to all people of a mature age. it reminded me of the story of hamlet in alot of ways. glenn close as the mother... just kidding. but rather the story was very life like, full of tradgedies, a few triumphs, close friends, and others to stab you in the back, and in the end, you die.
it is past midnight here. i haven't stayed up this late in a long long time, especially on my own accord. due to the online registration and the computer malfunctioning i had to contend with earlier, and the movie that is why i am still here. plus my over riding self guilt trip of not submitting an entry lately. so good-bye and goodnight.
oh yeah, one more thing. john howard is a short, bald guy, with a very small penis and an extremely ugly wife, he cannot be trusted on any topic whatsoever, and he willingly licks george bush's ass (and george loves the feeling of it too).
Sunday, February 06, 2005
birthday wish
it was my birthday the other day. i turned 31. if you haven't already, this is a reminder to send that fire truck i always wanted. or lots and lots of money preferably in the millions.
my big update (as seen on my last email)
(sorry for any spelling mistakes, but i couldn't be bothered to edit this)
hello all
well i didn't fall off the face of the planet, yet. i have overcome the withdrawals of not being hooked up to the internet now for about 6 weeks. and reallly it doesn't feel all that bad. in a way it is blissful to not have the need to tune in, but after a while i get anxious and want to know what is going on in the lives of frineds and family around the world.
firstly the reason i have not been emailing was due to computer malfucntion. it was not by choice. our computer would not allow us to log onto hotmail. so i tried to set up a yahoo account. that worked for about 10 days and then we could not log onto that. then it was the internet altogether. in that time i have been so busy with work and moving house, that i have not had the opportunity to sit down to type up a letter to anyone. so now i am typing to everyone.
i have been working alot. but that is pretty much same old story. pulled a few people out of the surf and had to resuscutate a few this year. so far no one has died. but i am constantly encountering the morons that inhabit the planet. but those encounters are now becoming far fewer now that the summer holidays have ended and kids back to school and paretns back to work.
i had been surfing frequently up until about christmas and then got overwhelmed with parties and work and packing boxes. that i have really scaled that back. in the past few months i have been trying to become more competent on my short board. i can ride it, but so far the short board is winning. i have been severely beaten up by the 6 foot 5 inch fiberglass board on several occasions now, and am still carrying a few of the wounds to show. but i have not chucked in the towel yet. i am still long boarding as well. so it is all good times until the waves stop coming in.
ok, the big news. foir those of you who don't know already. cherry and i bought a house! yes, we finally did it. we only moved into it about 5 days ago, as the first few days were spent tearing up carpets and sanding floors and packing boxes and moving boxes and furniture and cleaning and scrubbing and all that crazy fun stuff. we were certainly happy to leave behind the apartment we were renting. both of us sick of looking at those walls and foul carpet and paint peeling off the ceiling that we so desperately wanted to paint, but did not have a say in the matter. however, now we are doing all that crazy stuff for our own house. it is all so much fun and totally overwhelming at the same time. yesterday i was sanding the stair case for 6 hours. among mowing the lawn, cooking breakfast and still unpacking boxes. there are still many more boxes to unpack.
the house, is two story brick. there is 2 bathrooms and 3 bedroom. a large living room that combines with a dining room and kitchen. there are two baconies that are on either side of the house off the living room. underneath there is a carport wide enough for two cars, but we have plans to change that and create a large office space for cherry... as well as a huge yard on both sides of the house. the gradens are crazy with the most outrageous types of plants growing everywhere, with lots of grass in the middle of it all. there are spiders everywhere too. in the yards there is so much going on we don't know where to start. but we will get there eventually. the house is on a corner block and we are about 1.5 miles from the beach. we have the smallest of glimpses of the ocean out of two windows. it is enough to know that it is there. i am about a 15 minute bike ride from work, and plan to start riding this week.
tomorrow is the super bowl. i plan to watch it with my friend angus. it will be airing here about 9:30 in the morning. so i have pretty much accepted it will be a day of total debauchery for me. i have plans to go into the city in the afternoon. i need to go and register for classes. i have been accepted into university. i am planning on getting my teaching credential, part time study over the next two years. so i will be pretty busy for a while to come.
cherry is doing really well. her business is really moving ahead by leaps and bounds. at the moment, she is designing a restaurant for a reality t.v. show here in australia. there is crazy budgets and short time lines, but she is doing the impossible and making it all happen. the couple who are opening the restaurant and being the focus of the show, are totally amazed at her drive and talent. she is doing amazing, especially while juggling us moving into the new house simultaneously.
what else? read the blog site and you will understand more of what i have been up to, lately. although, due to the computer hassles already mentioned, that too has been lacking. but was working longer than the email. so when you read this letter i hope you receive it well and times are good for you all. write me back, but at the moment i am still not sure when i will be able to respond. i am not even writing this letter from home, but from a remote location on someone elses lap top. which i am totally grateful for.
now i will send this off and hope that i don't screw it up between here and the send button.
love brent
hello all
well i didn't fall off the face of the planet, yet. i have overcome the withdrawals of not being hooked up to the internet now for about 6 weeks. and reallly it doesn't feel all that bad. in a way it is blissful to not have the need to tune in, but after a while i get anxious and want to know what is going on in the lives of frineds and family around the world.
firstly the reason i have not been emailing was due to computer malfucntion. it was not by choice. our computer would not allow us to log onto hotmail. so i tried to set up a yahoo account. that worked for about 10 days and then we could not log onto that. then it was the internet altogether. in that time i have been so busy with work and moving house, that i have not had the opportunity to sit down to type up a letter to anyone. so now i am typing to everyone.
i have been working alot. but that is pretty much same old story. pulled a few people out of the surf and had to resuscutate a few this year. so far no one has died. but i am constantly encountering the morons that inhabit the planet. but those encounters are now becoming far fewer now that the summer holidays have ended and kids back to school and paretns back to work.
i had been surfing frequently up until about christmas and then got overwhelmed with parties and work and packing boxes. that i have really scaled that back. in the past few months i have been trying to become more competent on my short board. i can ride it, but so far the short board is winning. i have been severely beaten up by the 6 foot 5 inch fiberglass board on several occasions now, and am still carrying a few of the wounds to show. but i have not chucked in the towel yet. i am still long boarding as well. so it is all good times until the waves stop coming in.
ok, the big news. foir those of you who don't know already. cherry and i bought a house! yes, we finally did it. we only moved into it about 5 days ago, as the first few days were spent tearing up carpets and sanding floors and packing boxes and moving boxes and furniture and cleaning and scrubbing and all that crazy fun stuff. we were certainly happy to leave behind the apartment we were renting. both of us sick of looking at those walls and foul carpet and paint peeling off the ceiling that we so desperately wanted to paint, but did not have a say in the matter. however, now we are doing all that crazy stuff for our own house. it is all so much fun and totally overwhelming at the same time. yesterday i was sanding the stair case for 6 hours. among mowing the lawn, cooking breakfast and still unpacking boxes. there are still many more boxes to unpack.
the house, is two story brick. there is 2 bathrooms and 3 bedroom. a large living room that combines with a dining room and kitchen. there are two baconies that are on either side of the house off the living room. underneath there is a carport wide enough for two cars, but we have plans to change that and create a large office space for cherry... as well as a huge yard on both sides of the house. the gradens are crazy with the most outrageous types of plants growing everywhere, with lots of grass in the middle of it all. there are spiders everywhere too. in the yards there is so much going on we don't know where to start. but we will get there eventually. the house is on a corner block and we are about 1.5 miles from the beach. we have the smallest of glimpses of the ocean out of two windows. it is enough to know that it is there. i am about a 15 minute bike ride from work, and plan to start riding this week.
tomorrow is the super bowl. i plan to watch it with my friend angus. it will be airing here about 9:30 in the morning. so i have pretty much accepted it will be a day of total debauchery for me. i have plans to go into the city in the afternoon. i need to go and register for classes. i have been accepted into university. i am planning on getting my teaching credential, part time study over the next two years. so i will be pretty busy for a while to come.
cherry is doing really well. her business is really moving ahead by leaps and bounds. at the moment, she is designing a restaurant for a reality t.v. show here in australia. there is crazy budgets and short time lines, but she is doing the impossible and making it all happen. the couple who are opening the restaurant and being the focus of the show, are totally amazed at her drive and talent. she is doing amazing, especially while juggling us moving into the new house simultaneously.
what else? read the blog site and you will understand more of what i have been up to, lately. although, due to the computer hassles already mentioned, that too has been lacking. but was working longer than the email. so when you read this letter i hope you receive it well and times are good for you all. write me back, but at the moment i am still not sure when i will be able to respond. i am not even writing this letter from home, but from a remote location on someone elses lap top. which i am totally grateful for.
now i will send this off and hope that i don't screw it up between here and the send button.
love brent
