Doing it Da Vinci style

9 1-13 7-15-9-14-7 20-15 20-8-5 7-15-12-4 3-15-1-19-20 6-15-18 20-8-5 12-15-14-7 23-5-5-11-5-14-4!!!!

Random Rants

Last night I gave up my Italian class and tickets to the ACO to attend the Socceroos vs Kuwait match. The match was good in the sense that we won.....but we also played like a bunch of amateurs compared to the World Cup Socceroos squad. There was no direction or focus in their play. I knew the team will be different, but not that different. Still, I jumped and cheered until I almost passed out when they scored their 2 goals. Lets just hope they find a good coach soon and build up a squad like we had at the World Cup.

On another note, they had 3 Black Hawk helicopters going through the city for training yesterday. Apparently it also happened on Monday, but I was out during lunch time and somehow missed it. I just remembered sitting at my desk, totally absorbed in a document I was reading, when all of a sudden I head a "fump fump fump" type sound, everything in our office started vibrating. I look out the window to see HUGE shadows fall onto the buildings around me and I started panicking. I didn't run around screaming or anything, but my initial reaction was that we were under attack. That its 9/11 in Australia. My heart was going 3 times the normal speed and the blood drained from my face. I run to the window only to see military helicopters fly within a few meters from our building. They were so close I could see the identification numbers on them! Apparently they had warned some people (I think in the morning news or something) about the training exercise, but as I didn't know about it, I thought it was the end for us.

Its quite sad that because of what is happening around us, we automatically think the worse is going to happen. I remember as a kid, I would be so happy and excited to see a helicopter in the sky. To see any sort of jet zoom through the air. Somewhere along the line, I guess it was 9/11, I lost that part of me. Its been replaced with fear. If I see any sort of military aircraft or helicopter floating around, my first reaction is that there is a threat to the country and something is going to go *Kaboom* around me. Maybe I used to be naive and think we were all safe.....maybe we WERE all safe back then.....I just wished things could go back to the way they used to be. But then maybe I'm being naive now for even thinking that.....

A nice weekend had by all

Saturday was spent lazing about at home followed by the usual grocery shopping/lunch outing with my parents. After enjoying a bit of Saturday Kitchen (One of the many reasons why I'm usually home on a Saturday arvo), I headed off to Coach-bait's place to celebrate his Birthday. Captain-bait had laid out an impressive feast including spring rolls, chicken satay, bbqed meats of various sorts, cheese, dips, and most importantly, a lick smacking punch. I swear there was no alcohol in the punch. Not that I could taste anyway. As I had double booked myself, I rocked up, sculled about 8 glasses of punch, took a swig out of my cough medicine bottle and was on my way with Moishii to watch "The Emperor of Sydney" featuring Alex Dimitriades.

The play was at the Griffin Theatre at Kings Cross. It is the 3rd chapter in the trilogy, and despite the fact that I haven't seen the first 2 plays, I still enjoyed it and it wasn't like I was missing out on any of the story as they did a good job on filling people in who have missed the first 2 plays. The Theatre itself is tiny but intimate. I ended up in the first row because I didn't want to have to shuffle over for people who came in late and ended up against a wall. The only problem was that we were sitting too close to the front. It was a bit like sitting in the front row at the movies that was showing a tennis match. I had my head craned up at an uncomfortable angle and continuously turned my head left and right to see all the characters. The play starts and within the first 30seconds I wanted to turn around and throttle Moishii whilst yelling "WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU GOTTEN ME INTO???" followed by a laughing fit. But by the end of the show, I was glad that Moishii had invited me along. I truely enjoyed the show even though Alex Dimitriades almost threw a guy onto me.

By the time the show ended, it was around 10:30 and we were both complaining that we were tired. How pathetic is that? Its barely 10:30 on a Saturday night and both of us wanted to go home and sleep! Life could NOT go on like this. So we decided we had to go have coffee, and we're not allowed to go home before midnight. So off we went to our favourite New Orleans cafe at Crows Nest. After downing 2 coffees each, multiple beighnets and some banana cake, we sat around waiting for the time to tick by. Midnight! It was finally time for home! I couldn't believe how relieved we were.....this is truely pathetic. But atleast we had a great night out! We realised that the 2 of us haven't been "out" out for quite awhile. Usually its the movies, or friday night drinks, maybe a bit of shopping on a Sunday afternoon. But we couldn't remember when was the last time we had a night out. Must do it again some time soon!!

Despite my lack of sleeping from having 2 coffees before midnight, I was still up fairly early to prepare for our Volleyball/picnic day. I packed my offerings of Shaved italian salami, home made roasted marinated capsicums, cheese, pate, dips and various other things, grabbed a really fresh cob of Vienna bread and off I was to Wentworth park. We picked a nice picnic area away from the swarm of fish market goers accompanied by the swarm of sqwarking sea gulls and pulled all the food out. We ate, and we ate, and we ate some more. By the time the food was almost gone, we thought it was time to do a bit of Volleyball training.....only we were all too full. So we did some half arsed attempt to hit the ball.....well I did anyway. 4pm came by and I would happily crawl under a blanket and sleep outdoors.....but we decided to head on over to Coach-bait and Captain-bait's place to watch a DVD Moishii had so kindly put together. It was a DVD of our last game.........

Oh god it was embarrassing.....I yell....alot. And its a scary "OMFG who is strangling the cat and using the dead cat to beat up an angry camel" type scream. And I'm loud. REALLY LOUD. And I had conciously lowered my voice that game.....despite that, you can hear my "SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT" from the other side of the court as I make a run for a lost ball. Then there was the clapping. Moishii's right, our team claps...ALOT. We clap when we win a point, we clap when we lose a point, we clap when our team is going to serve, we clap when the other team is going to serve, we clap when theres a break. We clap to encourage ourselves but to also acknowledge that the team won a good point.....but it was getting a bit ridiculous! We've all decided that we're going to try and do less clapping at the next game. And I'm going to stop swearing.......or atleast do it softer. Lets see how we go hey?

Oh, BTW, another 2 MVP points! Only 3 more to go!

Things have been a bit random lately

I can't even be bothered writing a proper post. So here it is in point form:

• Had my Bank holiday on Monday. One of the many perks for working in a bank! Even if its an investment bank! hehehe

• The project that was on again and off again is now officially off until further notice.

• Just had my mid year review and got some great feedback. I'm now officially know as "Eagle eyes". Probably not a good thing because chances are I'll get roped into doing minute and tedious things because other people can't focus.

• Volleyball is getting better and better! We had a great game this week. Didn't win, but its always satisfying to walk away knowing you put up a great fight. Moishii rocked up to film the process....I'm expecting a commentry from him after his whole hooha about "sports commentators". God knows what to expect.....it's probably along the lines of "And they Serrrve! The ball goes over the net. XXX stood and scratched her butt whilst YYY Screamed like a lunatic running around the court. ZZZ goes in for a dive and knocks XXX unconcious who was still busy scratching her butt". I did manage to do an impressive Elvis impersonation during the game though. I dived to save a ball and ended up skidding on my knees half way across the court. BOOYA!

• I set myself a goal awhile back to get onto the MVP (Most Valuable Player) list...and I have! Woohoo!! 3 points! (3, 2 and 1 points are given out every match). And also a little birdy told me I might be on the list again this week...but its all TBC. I think it might have to do with the fact that I yell and scream and run ALOT and attract alot more attention than our other quieter members hence make more of an impression! hehehe Its all show! I'm now going to set myself a new goal of getting 8 MVP points by the end of the season (There is only 3 games left...)

• Other things are in motion that I will reveal at a later date.

Its been downhill....

My weeks usually always start on a high now days. I have Volleyball every Monday which always brings a cheer to my face, and Italian on Wednesdays to cheer me up midweek. Only this week has been going downhill since Monday....and its only Wednesday!

Work has been crazy, and the project I am working on has been a complete rollercoaster. I spent the first half of this week and a good part of last week trying to complete some work and get the system working. After all the fussing about, escalating issues and having a complete panic attack, I found out at 6:15pm last night that whatever I am working on, was never meant to work. Only no one told me. So the project went from "We're pulling the plug" to suddenly "We're still going ahead" in a day. However, today, we went through that cycle so many times I feel emotionally drained. The project was going in, its not going in, its going in again and now its getting pulled but it might still go in. Ontop of that, we have a bank holiday on Monday, but I need to work on the Sunday which just throws all my plans for a long weekend out the window. But the project has to go in...so I cancelled my plans to accomodate the project...if its even going in now.

I guess I could have finished the work......but I have tomorrow off. Not for a holiday......but to attend a funeral. I found out last week that one of our really close relative has passed away. She is basically considered our 3rd Grandma within our family. She looked after my dad when he moved from China to Hong Kong. And when she moved to Australia, she helped my Dad, and eventually our whole family move to Australia. She helped my Dad when we first set up the Restaurant, and she made sure that my Dad led a good life. She made him quit smoking, she made sure he never took up gambling. She ensured he was a good father to all the kids and she was like a grandmother for all of us. She had a feisty woman even at the age of 80+. She would be able to walk into any yum cha place in Chinatown and be greeted by everyone working there. She would go meet up with her old folkies, play the pokies at Star City, earn a few bucks and buy dinner for the night. She can tell what Mah Jong tile she has with a touch of her finegrs and she knows exactly what tile I need to win 5mins into a game.

She was a part of our family. Infact, I used to get shunted off the family table at weddings to make room for her whilst I sat with the kids. She was also an amazing woman and I am glad that she was a part of our lives.

What's to come for the rest of the month?

Nothing simple ever happens in my life. Just the other day I was thinking that its almost August. This time the last 2 years, I would be packing ready for a trip overseas to Turkey and Mykonos. I was proud at myself for not booking...for not spending $10K on a trip overseas. That I might actually have an incident free, calm and normal August. So today, August 1st I get a call from Moishii. He wanted to call me last night only it was really late. At first I thought it was to see how our Volleyball game went, but it was actually about his Mum. Huh?? Basically his mum was having an attack.....and at the back of my mind I was going:

"Oh my god...what now??"

I've seen his mum have an attack......its funny in a scary sort of way. Flash back to 2004, we were sitting in the Istanbul airport waiting for our flight. I was travelling from Istanbul to Singapore with Moishii and his Mum and we'll part ways there. Suddenly all the lights go off. Theres a black out and his mum starts to freak. Then she sees the plane and reckons its small (Its a bloody Boeing 747) and freaks even more. So with that in mind, I was expecting some ridiculous story..... ESPECIALLY since Moishii started his story with "Flash back to 2004....."

Him: "Flash back to 2004....."

Me: "Yeeeeeeess......?"

Him: "Remember that taxi driver that took us to the airport?"

Me: "Yeeeeeeees.....?"

Him: "He was on the news last night. He was arrested."

Me:" ".....what.....da.....fark???"

Come on, to be arrested and splashed ALL OVER the Turkish news bulletine, it must've been something big! It wouldn't have been stealing candy from a baby......more like a serial killer! Maybe he kidnapped his passengers and dismember them before throwing them into the sea. Or maybe he takes the dismembered arms and slaps people who don't tip him! MAYBE.....he drove around the streets of Istanbul hurling body parts out of the taxi window??? We're not too sure exactly what happened since Moishii's mum was having an attack screaming and yelling at the TV!

You're probably asking how they remember the taxi driver? They actually met the guy when they first visited Istanbul, and he used to drive them around, and eventually they got his private mobile number and used him as a private chauffer. They booked him to take us to the airport the day we were leaving, and he ended up ripping us off as a final farewell. Now that we think of it...he was in a really pissy mood that day.....omg...if Moishii's mum (Who could be a bit scary) wasn't there.....we could be chopped up and stuffed into barrels and shoved into the sea!!!

WHY THE HELL ARE YOU AND YOUR MUM INVOLVING ME WITH CRIMINALS??? NOT ONLY ARE YOU TRYING TO SCREW ME OVER, YOUR MUM IS TRYING TO SCREW ME OVER!! YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY IS AGAINST ME!!!

*Ahem*

Meanwhile, we lost the game last night. But we still had great fun. I finally got to slam a ball straight into Cookiez face! Hey! If everyone on the team gets to do that, its about time that it was my turn! Oh another note......I think I may have caught the Cookiez disease. Last week I ran into a door.....this week I ran into a wall. Maybe next week I'll run into the pole.....ontop of that...I copped a flying ball as well! (Only not to the face) I've also developed this horrible habit of making noises when I play...almost like women's tennis style...just not as bad. And I'm alot more creative when it comes to the type of noises. I make a "HEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYA!!!!!" when I spike......and "OooOoOOooohhhhhhhh" when I run and dig, if I serve badly, I do a "CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!"....and the highlight from last night? A ball came flying full force at me, and it was too high to dig, and too low to set, and I freaked out. So I let out this bloodchilling "ARRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" threw my arms infront of me, the ball rebounded off me somehow, went over the net and scored a point!! Woohooo!! Atleast I know my "Noises" help to distract the other team since it scared the beejeezus out of everyone...including my own team mates!!! hehehe and the most important thing is that we're all having fun. Lets hope we do better next week! SHARKBAIT!! WUHAHA!