The Waiting Man

An end to part of the working week... well, a day off, anyway

Shamefully slept in 'til about midday today, putting paid to plans to have brunch at a (nearly) seaside café, meaning it will now be lunch instead, as I don't think you can call any food 'breakfast' after midday, can you? Unless you're on night shifts, but that's splitting hairs...

My only excuse is L-SP & I went to see Ben Folds at the Sydney Town Hall last night, in concert with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, which makes it cultural, not just a pop concert... He's been working with orchestras for about 20 years now, so a) it's not some desperate attempt for credibility & b) he's really good at arrangements for them... as evidenced by the Rock This Bitch segment of the show, where he improvised a new song, wrote parts for strings, horns & percussion, then later gave 3-part harmonies to different sections of the audience... We've sung with Ben Folds!!

Like Tool the other week (though not as militantly), he discouraged photography & recording - 'til this song, not one of his, but dedicated to the bushfire recovery efforts urging us to share it & contribute as we can (We are... we are!!!). So here it is... filmed by someone else,but the only one I found on Youtube...



Now... shower & off to the (nearly) seaside...

... Well, maybe...

Last night we went out for dinner with 2 long-time friends. They're our burger/chicken/not-quite-fast-food-but-almost dining companions & Belle's Hot Chicken was the chosen venue. L-SP & I have been there before & enjoyed it, so were happy to recommend it for our fast-food foursome. Last time I was there, I had my chicken pieces 'Really Hot', which was one below the hottest level, appropriately named 'Really Fuckin' Hot' &, while it burned a little, it was quite tasty & certainly not the hottest thing I've ever eaten. But...

Last night, having been reminded by L-SP that I'd enjoyed the 'Really Hot', I went there again. My male counterpart ordered the 'Really Fuckin' Hot', as he's an enthusiastic chili hound. One difference was that there was now a higher heat level available, perplexingly named 'Sex Panther', after an off day in the Marketing Department, methinks.... Before too long, our chickens arrived. My friend got straight into his RFH & within 20 seconds was red-faced & starting to sweat at the eyebrows, but to his credit, kept going, with the aid of a nice 4 Pines ale. I picked up my first piece of RH...

... & within 20 seconds was red-faced, sweating from the eyebrows, had hiccuped from the heat & was further into my beer than my friend was. His wife took great delight in taking a photo of both of us, as evidence of our alpha male pretensions coming unstuck. Then my nose started bleeding...! This wasn't actually chili related, as it had bled earlier in the day, due to the headcold I've been nursing along for a few days... but it did provide an excuse to head to the bathroom & get the hell away from the devil bird for a few minutes. By the time I returned, our friend was onto his last piece &, while still red-faced & into a 2nd beer, was showing no signs of stopping. So I started my 2nd last & ordered another beer for myself too...

Some time around then, I had an epiphany... While wondering what the hell I was doing to myself, I realised I didn't actually have to do it at all & decided to finish the 2nd last piece & just... stop. To their credit, our friends didn't give me any grief for it (pretty sure one of them didn't have the breath, or lip/tongue co-ordination anyway!), so we paid the bill & made a beeline for the ice cream shop!!!

I had about 3 hours of good sleep, before heading for the toilet at about 2am, then again at 2.30, 3.15 & 3.45am. Around 4am, my nose started bleeding again, then by 5am Bella figured I was awake, so began her morning interruption schedule - wanting to be let out, wanting the heater turned on in the loungeroom, then wanting breakfast. My darling little cat has no idea how close she came to being put in the ground with her late sister... Off to work at 7.15am into the first day of school traffic...

The only way I can describe how I felt today was a food hangover... Nausea, headache, lethargy & the resultant impatience & extremely low bullshit threshold... with lots of water. LOTS of water... & more visits to the bathroom. L-SP reported that my friend who, let's remember, had the next heat level up from me, had suffered no lasting effects. I think I hate him a little right now...

Thinking about it, this isn't the first adverse reaction to hot food I've had recently... just the most extreme & memorable. So maybe it's time to retire my asbestos-coated digestion while there's still some coating left, as it's clearly wearing thin. No more chomping on chilis straight off the vine, no more hot sauces with death or disembowelment-related names proudly displayed on the kitchen shelves & dining table, no more beef or chicken vindaloos at the local Indian places... on 2nd thought, some of those aren't that hot, really... Maybe I can still have those...

Watch this space...

Just a short update... I met up with an old schoolfriend tonight, who turned out to live nearby & shares my passion for single malt scotch... which is why this will be more of a bookmarker entry than a detailed disclosure... hic...

An interesting evening's conversation, fuelled & probably helped by the first nice Speyside single malt I've ever had, washed down with my current favourite Highland malt, along with a triple cream brie, smoked cheddar, pepperoni, salami & crackers - you don't want to get too adventurous with food mixing with scotch... with a couple of misconceptions cleared up, some unexpected common ground discovered & some vague future plans mooted... more news next Tuesday, if we meet again as loosely scheduled

So the past comes back at you like...



And another kind of placemarker... Did I mention I saw Tommy Emmanuel at the Opera House the other week with help from dobro maestro Jerry Douglas??

A quiet evening in... so the music is loud, the backlog of photos is being addressed & here is the review of the last month or so...

My PC got sick in early March & kept blue-screen dying, so off it went to a PC-friendly friend, who diagnosed blocked air vents, overheating & Windows 10. He cleared the vents, checked the fans & couldn't do much about Windows 10 (Who can... really?!?!), other than offer to replace it with Windows 7, which he says is more reliable. I must have skipped 7, as I ran on XP for years & years without much trouble, so never upgraded until this new PC

Add to that, my phone decided to die as well. Working one minute, refusing to power up the next. Unfortunately, I hadn't backed up for a while, so I lost some nice photos, all my SMS activity, a whole bunch of phone contacts (If you're reading this & haven't heard from me in a while, it's nothing personal... probably. Give me a call & find out!!) & my preferred versions of Solitaire & Sudoku

While I was out of contact, it was time for L-SP & I to embark on our South Pacific cruise. We'd booked it a while ago & the departure date had been approaching like Halley's Comet - at one point it DID feel like it was 76 years away... until all of a sudden it was in 5 days time & we had to scramble to pack, prepare, board the cats, organise transport & remember where the 2nd suitcase was...

See you in a week, Sydney...



We were on the Royal Caribbean line's 'Explorer of the Seas' & it was like one of those modern shopping centres with the apartments built on top of it... with a couple of large propellers on the back. The sheer size of the thing was impressive from the outside, but once you hit the main central area inside the ship, the scale is nothing less than impressive... & probably a few words beyond that! We spent the first 2 hours finding our cabin, then exploring the 'Explorer'. We found the pool deck - with a few hundred of our fellow travellers already occupying the spas, lounges & poolside bars, showing little or no inclination to move from there. All fine by us, we weren't on board for the swimming - We also found the forward lounge, the shopping centre, the theatre, library, the 2 main dining areas, the 3 other restaurants, the Chapel, the lifeboats & the ice-skating rink (!!??). We didn't find the mini golf range until the 2nd last day, but no problem - a lot of other people had... There were also enough bars scattered over the decks to guarantee a mild case of cirrhosis before you could drink in all of them once. Again, no real problem - the additional cost of an alcoholic drinks package worked out at $75 per day & I doubted I could drink that much every day, so we decided to just pay as we went. I think I ended up only buying 3 drinks in 7 days... in between complimentary drinks, a wine-tasting & a beer bought for me by a friendly Karaoke-ist. Speaking of which, the reggae band playing Bob Marley's greatest hits found me as I was walking past on the first day & thrust a microphone at me during the chorus of 'Could You Be Loved'. I think the singer was impressed... or maybe just grateful I wasn't another half-drunk, tone-deaf white guy. Get used to them, fella

In short... 2 days at sea, a day in Noumea, New Caledonia, a day in Lifou, Loyalty Islands, then 2 days at sea & back to Sydney. A lot of trivia contests, a couple of art auctions, karaoke every night (including one night with a live band!), some group jigsaw solving, lots of great food, quite varied in origin, terrible coffee & the constant battle to remember that everything was priced in US dollars, so add around 40% before thinking something's a bargain!!

And, of course, the tropical clichés of crystal clear waters, white sands...



... & coconuts floating in the water. What more can you ask?!



The day on Lifou was my favourite... friendly natives, colonial architecture, a glass-bottom boat trip around the lagoon & reef (Coral! Turtles!! Home-made alcohol!!!). We returned to Sydney in the early hours of the morning in a torrential downpour, which made disembarking & finding our Über driver an adventure in itself. Home to our own bed, pillows & decent coffee - not necessarily in that order...

More to come in Part 2... despite popular demand...

Just returned from 'date night' with L-SP - who would argue that, since we don't have children, every night is date night... We had a buffet meal at the Sheraton on the Park Hotel in the city - something that would normally cost $100 per person, but a voucher deal halved that for us & made it worthwhile indulging

Or did it? Arriving at 6.30pm to a quiet, 1/3 full restaurant, the first 2 trips to the seafood section were a definite highlight, though the crab selection really reminds you that those little sideways critters are a lot of hard work for not a lot of reward (certainly not a patch on the Alaskan King crab we had in a Shack in Augusta Georgia a few years ago, unlikely to be bettered!!), but the oysters, mussels & prawns were of superior quality, so plenty of those were eaten as well

By this time, the place had filled up considerably, so when the time came to investigate the hot foods, it was a bit of a zoo, trying to get around people & get to anything that looked appetising. This is where it all came unstuck, really... I don't know what it is about buffets that brings out the caveman in modern humans. People were stacking plates so high with food, things were sliding off, picking at things with their fingers, pushing in or through the semi-orderly lines... all for dishes that, sorry, weren't that great, really... Certainly not $100 per person great... & barely $50 if we're counting that way

And it's not as if there was any shortage of food - waiters & servers were constantly re-filling dishes, only for people to swoop down like seagulls & take waaay more than you'd consider polite & bugger anyone else...

So here's the rub - I'm all for social climbing, ambition & aspiration - hell, I've been doing it all my life - but whatever happened to the raising of standards as you go up in the world. I mean, here we were at one of the city's more expensive Hotels & there were people getting 'round in shorts, t-shirts, baseball cap & thongs - dressed more for the beachside pub than the Sheraton &, as mentioned, behaving like the seagulls you'd find in the beer garden there. L-SP & I had dressed 'up' slightly, for the occasion, but soon discovered we needn't have bothered, given the standards on display... And for god's sake, take your damn stupid cap off when you're indoors!!!!!!

Okay, so Australia prides itself on being egalitarian & 'classless' to a degree & I applaud that attitude to an extent... but whatever happened to the idea of being better, or at least seeming to be??? Or even just the notion that you put a little effort into your appearance if you're going somewhere a few pricepoints above the local RSL Club (in fact, I even dress smartly to visit the Club!). Just because we're a classless society, doesn't mean classlessness is acceptable...

... Or is it? Is this just another outdated aspect of my anachronism?

Things often go that way

Friday & Saturday were rollercoaster days at work. I landed a couple of projects, one of which I'd quoted on so long ago I'd forgotten about it, the other from a website enquiry that became a 'sale' within 10 minutes. Happy Boss...

It was also discovered that I had stuffed up the floorplan for another project currently underway, by missing a room when site-measuring, meaning we were short quite a bit of materials. I'd missed the bedroom that you could only enter via the bathroom - there's no other door. My excuse was that the day I'd been there, painters were on site & had their stuff everywhere, including the bathroom, which obscured any view I might have had of any room beyond it & who the hell puts the door to a bedroom inside a bathroom anyway??!! My work never involves bathrooms, so I'd cursorily marked the bathroom on my plan & moved on, not remotely suspecting what lay beyond it. Unhappy Boss...

Fortunately, the client was reasonably understanding about the error & agree to pay the cost of materials & labour, so at least we didn't lose money because of me. Slightly happier Boss...

Therefore, Saturday afternoon couldn't come fast enough &, once home from work, Long-Suffering Partner & I made vague plans to go & find a good old pub meal - steak, 2 veg & Guinness - it was St Patrick's Day, after all. It took 3 pubs in 3 suburbs to find what we wanted at a reasonable price & you wouldn't expect that place to be in Mosman - one of the better-heeled suburbs of Sydney, not usually associated with bargains or economy, however this pub not only had Guinness on tap, but their Bistro menu was amazingly cheap. We'll be back!

Over dinner, L-SP received notification that a friend of ours was hosting a Karaoke night in an iconic pub in the inner-western suburbs. Not having seen our friend this year, we decided to trek over & maybe sandblast the tonsils a bit, for the first time since my birthday last year. A small but very vocal crowd - probably a good thing for a Karaoke night - & the usual mix of good, great & bloody awful singers. I wondered if anyone would do the pub's theme song & sure enough, someone did... though if Slim Dusty were alive today, it would have killed him to hear it. My rendition of 'Ballroom Blitz' was well received &, after a couple of drinks, we wound our way back home through the after-midnight traffic - more than you'd expect, but far less than what I get stuck behind during my normal commutes

Today is expected to be the last blast of Summer, with temperatures in the high 30s, so it could be a good car wash day, after a slow start, leisurely breakfast & maybe some cat-bonding time... if I can find the little buggers

Tens of thousands of people...2 great support acts (Australia's The Preatures & Weezer), a Sydney Summer heatwave & a 3 hour show that, even at that length, didn't have all the songs you might want to hear. Only a minor quibble though - The Foo Fighters are still a great, straight-ahead rock show, ticking all the boxes - singalongs, name-checking the city, comparing audiences from other cities & how we were the best (until tomorrow night...), classic rock cover versions & the only good thing about mobile phones at gigs these days...



And a slight ringing in the ears on the walk back to the car park... A great night!

The least amount of travel, but the most fun so far...

( C'est la vie say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell )

Blerp... The morning after the night befpre...

Not hung over - didn't drink very much at all last night, but definitely emerging from a food coma. December is traditionally spent with various friends & colleagues, at various tables, having food plonked in front of you, which you plough through as you review the year that was... & last night was no exception

The last Wafflers meeting of the year is always a buffet affair & I've spent this past week organising numbers, doing seating arrangements & liasing with caterers, making sure that the 73 guests would all get something they like to eat. For such is the job of Dinner Secretary in the Club & I've been doing it for nearly 2 years... & boy, does it take a toll

Most months we have somewhere between 30-40 people & even that can be a bit tricky, 'cause everyone has their preference as to who they sit with, what they can & can't eat... L-SP & I have dubbed the 3rd week of the month 'Wafflers Week' & have learned that any disagreements we have, about anything, can be put down to the stress of dealing with that finicky bunch & are not to be seen as anything other than pressure relief, So finagling with almost twice the usual number means that this week, it's probably been best for L-SP to not talk to me at all... except that, because of the aforementioned social nature of December, we've probably talked more than usual. No black eyes, or divorce lawyers though... I'd say we've come through rather well... fed !!

Can't wait for April 2015's AGM, when my term on the Committee is up & they'll have to find a new Dinner Secretary... Boy, will we give 'em hell with our requests...

An 11th hour reprieve might be at hand for my career too. I got a call just as we were heading out last night, from an immediate past colleague, with news of a job opportunity with a much larger & much more reputable company than the one I'm starting with on Monday... & in the same product range that I've been working with over the last 2 years. Which is good, because I wasn't looking forward to emptying my head of all the technical info I've gathered on it, so that there'll be room for the new stuff I'll be flogging. Anyway, hopefully off to see a man about a horse this morning. What does one wear on a Saturday when going to see a potential employer, but it's not actually an 'interview' as such, more just an introduction & fact-finding field trip?

Tuesday... & the week gathers momentum

Getting busy at work & also looking further into the week where there are two days spent in another branch office on the other side of town, acoustic sessions on another side of town, an informal family dinner in the middle of town, then seeing Tool for the first time in a while

So a quiet night in for tonight...Deep breath & off we go

To bed

The day began with removing graffiti from the showroom walls (outside!), with a solvent product called 'Goofoff'... Highly effective... & leaving me effectively high too... Nice fumes

Preparing for renovations at work meant a lot of lifting, shifting, carrying & sorting of product, in between trying to sell some of it, but a quiet day on that front

Trivia this evening & I think we're about done with the venue, the crowd & the Host. Hard to park anywhere near, full of nerds, geeks & day-release patients from Gladesville & just not as amusing as it once was. The fact that we didn't win has nothing to do with my ennui... No, really it hasn't

Done for the day....zzzzzzzzzzzz

Tonight was supposed to be a musical one, but our bassist had a last-minute commitment so the rest of us postponed, leaving me with an unexpected free evening. The Loved One suggested we head up to the local RSL Club for dinner, drinks & the Meat Tray Raffle. Sounded good to me... Arriving at the Club, we bought $20 worth of tickets, which came with a $15 dinner discount voucher, ordered our meals & drinks, then waited for the numbers to be called

First ticket number was way below our range, second was over. I joked that if this was an artillery exercise, the next number would be spot on. Then the buzzer went off for our meals &, as I went to collect them, they called one of our numbers. The Loved One went to claim our meat tray & I returned with dinners. As we were about to tuck in, they called another of our numbers... so I went this time to claim another tray. A short time later, as I was collecting round two of our drinks, one of our numbers was up again... This was getting embarrassing

It was worse when we were leaving the Club, collecting three swags full of steaks, sausages, pork chops, eggs, bacon, chickens & roasting beef. It looked like we'd mugged a Butcher. We decided that one of the trays would find a good home at a friend's place. He had a motorcycle accident in January & has broken feet & ribs, so moving around is a challenge & trips to the supermarket even more so. So... we've just come home after a couple of hours of catching-up & watching Fail clips on YouTube. Now my ribs hurt...

A Game of Thrones event at a Randwick cinema tonight ~ a Season II episode shown on the big screen, a Q&A with Michelle Fairley, who plays Catelyn Stark, then a 'Making of...' documentary on the episode we saw

The 'Blackwater' episode looked great on a screen even bigger than our one at home, the Q&A was both fun & informative... & the whole audience groaned & clenched their teeth when the Harry Potter fan asked a pointless, superfluous question about Michelle's minor involvement in 'Deathly Hallows I'. I thought of a question for her towards the end, but time precluded its asking... Now I'll never know (sob!!). The documentary probably would have been of more interest to anyone fascinated by, or working in, the nuts'n'bolts of production design... which isn't really me on either count

A quick dinner late supper afterwards, now home. Now bed

Playing around with carpet samples this evening... kindasorta starting to think about maybe dreaming of a vague plan to, one day in the future, definitely consider the possibility of preparing an open-ended strategy for potential implementation, in due course, of hypothetical steps towards the forming of an idea geared towards eventually getting new carpet throughout WaitingManor... Sometime

Or not

A couple of the mat-sized samples do feel rather luxurious when stood on in bare feet... Mmmmm

One of only two nights in this week. Coming up ~ Dinners, a show, trivia quiz & an acoustic session optimistically being referred to as a rehearsal. Must dust off the Matron

An abortive attempt this evening to participate in a new trivia night, as our regular one from last year will not be back

As we will not be back to tonight's venue... too crowded, too trendy... & the trivia had a 'Seinfeld' theme ~ my least favourite US comedy of the 90s & now endless syndication, so I was never going to be an enthusiastic contestant anyway. Dinner then became Priority 1, so on one of our group's recommendation, we trooped down to Chinatown & into a restaurant specialising in different flavours of fried chicken. The soy sauce-flavoured one was great, the plain one was a bit bland & the hot'n'spicy'n'covered in cheese was possibly a bit over the top... but we ate it all anyway

Work experience continues. Haven't sold anything yet, so it's all theoretical until I can test my memory & improv skills