Dances with Words

We went to a surprise birthday party for our housemate last night, at a Mexican restaurant in OG. Earlier in the afternoon he actually invited me to join him and his partner for dinner (he was under the impression it was just going to be them). Odd situation, I had to quickly think of an excuse so it was “er, actaully I think we’re busy… er, doing something… sorry”. The party was fun, just a few of his close friends, it was good to meet a few new people.

Then this morning the weather has been glorious, I was going to make some bookshelves but the price of wood is considerably more than I had anticipated so instead I bought some tomato and chilli seedling and planted out the last of the space in my little garden bed. Elicia finishes work soon, I’m going to pick her up and after a spot of lunch we’re going to an art show in Barwon Heads. There is, coincidently, another art show on today in Queenscliff, which we may also attend after that.

I finished work about 2pm this afternoon. So I started the weekend early, doing a bit of work here at home but being casual about it. I’m currently contemplating grabbing a beer from the fridge. (Followed by consuming said beer.)

Psycho weather down here. At least at Hotham it’s consistently cold.

But the alternating of water falling from the sky and hot sunshine has been great for my baby corn, they are going great guns. I’m going to plant some snowpeas the next chance I get, but the wet stuff has been putting me off a bit.

Also, I’ve got a flat tyre on my bike and I don’t have any cash to fix it until next week. So I dragged Leash out of bed this morning to drive me to work. I felt a bit bad making her get up, she does after all have a serious day of slacking off planned.

We have a little booklet thing with plastic sleeves that holds about 20 of our favourite CDs for car listening. About three days ago we realised it was missing, perhaps stolen but most likely misplaced (we thought at the time). I’ve always been a bit worried about it, because having all your favourite music in one easy-to-steal package seemed like a bit of an unecessary gamble to me.

Anyway, today, it turned up. It had somehow found its way into a bag of Elicia’s massage towels, and it had travelled with those towels to the industrial laundry and then through a washing machine! And even more suprising, most of the CDs survived!! A couple broke, but the ones that remained intact seem to play well, in fact the clarity and general cleanliness of the sound is even better than before.

…that we also had our good friends who have been living at Hamilton Island resort down on Friday night. That was lots of fun, and many contrasting photos were shown. We also went with them and our housemates (we are all old friends) down to Pt Lonsdale at night for a torchlit stroll across the rocks that are exposed at low tide. It was foggy, and the lights from the pier and the lighthouse glowing through the mist and the foghorn booming were so atmospheric, it was like being in a movie. Awesome, I wish I had taken the camera.

We had quite a busy weekend. Saturday we went to a cousin’s wedding – very nice, intimate, it was a privelage to be invited. For those that care, the bride’s dress was a very pale blue, clean cut and stylish. It was held at a reception centre in Melbourne that is themed as an Olde English pub, lots of wood panelling and stuffed game on the walls. The cake was displayed below a dead fox. Cool.

Then Sunday we went to Hotham Staff reunion at the Espy in St Kilda, a Melbourne icon that I had never been to before. It was a lot grungier than I imagined. It was good to see all our friends though, kind of strange to see them in normal clothes in a normal place. Driving down St Kilda Road made me feel like a country bumpkin, all the funky cafes filled with funky people. I’d like to live in Melbourne one day, experience the culture for a couple of years.

We came home from Melb in time to go out for dinner with a fill-in chiropractor who’s currently working at Elicia’s clinic. He brought a girl who’s an actor in the Bell Shakespeare company doing the schools program. It was really good, I talked to her about books and the Arts while Elicia and the chiro talked about new techniques and diagnoses. That seems to happen often with people that we know – I often have a lot in common with Elicia’s friends’ partners – the old ‘opposites attract’ theory proving itself.

All that praying must have paid off, because my domain name is accessible again! No, don’t bother looking yet, it still has to be transferred to the new host, which will take a coupelof days – but at least it is now being transferred! I feel happy.

In other news, I got swooped by a magpie on my way to work today. Not an entirely unusual occurence, but this morning it actually made contact, which it never has before. Let me just say that there is more than one good reason to wear a helmet when riding.

We caught a few little leatherjackets, it was lots of fun and we still got to work by 9 o’clock. We had them for lunch. It was Geelong cup day today so we had a semi-public-holiday. That means we still had to work, but not as hard as normal. Then I had my first piano lesson after work. It was great, some awesome tunes to practise but I haven’t found a transformer that will plug into my keyboard so I haven’t been able to do anything yet.

My previous hosts are still being incredibly annoying when it comes to my domain name. It is locked at the current registrar (registered in their name) which means I can’t get to it at all. The website isn’t too worrying, but it’s been a week now since I’ve been able to get any email, and that is worrying. My email address is my primary point of contact for most of my clients, and a heck of a lot of other people as well. Most annoying, I hope it sorts out in the next couple of days. I keep sending emails to the company, but that’s about all I can do. I’ve hit a plateau in worrying about it.

I’ve been working for over two weeks now, I mean Proper Working. It’s been going really well, the work is interesting (I’m drawing maps, did I mention that?) and the routine is good. I definitely work harder when I’m in a place of employment rather than my own home computer.

I’ve also been riding my bike nearly every day, although there were a few wet mornings last week when I got a lift. Riding is good. Here is a short list of some things I see on my way to work: fields of canola, cows, sheep, small yellow birds, magpies, a view of Pt Lonsdale beach, a dam, rabbits, flags, a swimming pool, a roundabout, pieces of tyre, lots of cars and I’m sure there’s other things I’ll notice tomorrow morning. Actually I won’t notice tomorrow because I’m going fishing with my boss before work, and therefore won’t have time to ride afterwards. I don’t think.

Elicia got another two jobs on the weekend. Her own business is going well, but the number of massages she can do in a week is limited by the availability of the room – which she shares with another person at the clinic. After working 40+ hours every week at Hotham, coming back here to what is really only a part-time schedule left her feeling a bit bored (and poor also, I think). So she went out and talked to a few cafe places in Queenscliff last week and two of them offered her work on the spot. So it’s not just me that appreciates her good qualities!

I’ve also been searching for something else to keep myself entertained. I have always liked learning new things – when I’m not in formal education I like to do classes in something-or-other (preferably not computer related) just for fun. Since getting back I have pondered returning to several previously-discarded hobbies: karate, painting, photography, harmonica, woodwork, ham radio and piano, plus several other things that I’ve never done before but would like to try. Like fashion design – I was briefly inspired after watching a very interesting doco the other night. I also considered doing a bachelor of theology part-time off-campus, I could take it to Hotham with me next year, but the cost is prohibitive. Maybe some time in the future. Anyway, I made a deal with my sister so she will teach me to play the piano again and I will teach her guitar. I only learned piano for a year or so and that was a few years ago now, but I enjoyed it and will enjoy getting back into it. If I make that my main hobby I should get plently of time to practise… that’s the plan, anyway…