Welcome to 2010

Sun Burn

Sun, 7 Mar 2010 12:30:12 +1000

Yesterday I burnt my hand in the oven, today I burnt my arms in the sun. I’m not good with heat, bring on winter!

It was another early start for me this morning, slightly later than yesterday, but I still felt really tired and my alarm had to go off several times before I managed to get up. Once Sze Sze was at school I came home and slowly woke myself up more and more.

At lunchtime Jourdan came over and we went to watch some golf for the day, initially driving to the chapel and waling to Tees and a few holes from there. After watching a few of the leaders, I took the buggy home and entered the course from village 3, walking back to Tees and sitting in the Karrie Webb Club stand for a while.

Before Karrie Webb approached the hole, leading by quite a bit, we made our exit and took up a seat on the podium lawn to watch the annual cricket match, which was really my highlight of the day. Luckily RACV had set out foldout chairs, so we were comfortable watching the game. Australia won that too.

As I left to pick Sze Sze up, Jourdan left to go home. Sze Sze was very happy to let me know that she’d received an iPod shuffle for her 2 days of help, one of the polished stainless steel ones too.

This evening we had an unorthodox scrambled egg dinner with mushrooms and chorizo. It was very filling and just thinking about it now is making me feel a little sick, as I’m just stuffed.

I’ll rub some aloe vera into my skin tonight before bed.

Burn

Sat, 6 Mar 2010 12:30:42 +1000

I had an early start this morning thanks to Sze Sze. I guess I should be grateful she didn’t have touch training to go to, but it was still too early for me.

Instead she went to school to do a computer course with the teachers given by some Apple representatives, ensuring the teachers know how to use their macs effectively and how to use some of the pro software that the school buys. Sze Sze later said she was mainly helping the teachers who were having problems understanding... the state of teaching in QLD I’m sure.

After dropping her off I came home and almost immediately took a nap until lunchtime. I was lounging around in bed when mum phoned, finally getting me up. I helped her with her computer issues, but forgot to phone HSBC as she’d asked me to do, another day I shall.

This afternoon I watched a little bit of the golf... on TV, but mainly kept to the computer.

Then, this afternoon while making lunch, I accidentally touched my hand to the oven grill when putting bacon in the oven and burnt myself. The contact must have been less than a second, but I have a nice red patch on my hand now. Immediately I cooled it down with water and ice, before using some (probably expired) burn cream to reduce the stinging. Luckily there were no blisters, it’s a superficial burn, it’s just discoloured.

I walked Chilli by myself this evening, giving her a good run along village 3 as usual, before picking up Sze Sze, having a drink with Ada, Bob and Yvonne and finally watching the NAB Cup semifinal, where St. Kilda beat Fremantle 115 to 45. Final next week, but it’s only the pre-season tournament.

Dinner tonight was chicken flavoured rice and chorizo, it was a very good combination.

Overcast

Fri, 5 Mar 2010 12:30:44 +1000

Today was overcast, pretty much all day, with even some light rain falling this evening. Light enough that Sze Sze and I could walk Chilli in it, but still heavy enough to dampen our clothes a little.

We did some grocery shopping this afternoon, as we were finally running out of food and drink. We had done a smaller shop earlier in the week for little bits and pieces, like milk. But we ran out of that today too.

The golf seemed to be on all day again, despite the drizzle. It was reported on the news that a load of Koreans were in the lead, followed by some Australians.

On TV tonight was the sci-fi premiere of Warehouse 13, a relatively new series that’s less than a year old, though it premiered in the states last year. The pilot was 2 hours long and while Sze Sze wasn’t sure what to think of it, I liked it. As Eureka season 2 has ended, I’ll now be recording and watching Warehouse 13. I can’t wait for more episodes.

Golf Begins

Thu, 4 Mar 2010 12:31:33 +1000

Well it was sunny this morning, so the golf has begun. Dark clouds threatened to spoil the day several times, but it never rained. The gusty breeze kept things cool too, it really does feel like autumn.

Sze Sze had a driving lesson in the morning, I was asleep till after she got back though, and then we both spent a boring day doing our own things. I watched some TV, she spent the day in her room.

For dinner tonight we were going to have the rest of the leftover shepherds pie that Yvonne had prepared us earlier in the week, but she called again to offer us some honey chicken she’d made too much of instead. The food was good, but we did stress that she doesn’t need to cook for us. Perhaps we’ll have to make something for her... not sure what though.

I happened to mostly hear, and eventually watched the ending of Cowboys & Angels, on SBS tonight. For this reason I’d say I’ve seen it, even though I mostly heard it. It turned out to be a really good late night movie. Probably because of the Irish accents in it, haha.

Bento Box

Wed, 3 Mar 2010 12:30:45 +1000

There were a few isolated showers today, although one shower was almost torrential, it didn’t last very long. Seeing the golfers huddled under whatever shelter they could find on the golf course while this was happening was priceless, but today was just the pro-am and I’m surprised the course was up to spec.

Luckily it also wasn’t too humid, as I’d expected it to be after the rain stopped. There’s a good breeze blowing though, so perhaps that has something to do with it.

Sze Sze’s coaching was back on obviously, so she’ll make some money this week.

This evening we went to the Japanese for dinner, as it’s been a while since we were there. It was very busy, though there were free seats around the sushi bar as usual. The menu had changed since the last time we were there... so we tried some new dishes, one of which was the Bento Box. As the box contains many different things, it cost a little more than we’d usually pay for a portion, but it’s several portions, so we shared it and were very happy with what we got.

There wasn’t much on TV this evening, and the wind was really blowing by the time I wanted to go to bed, occasionally branches would brush against the chimney making a strange noise.

Yet More Rain

Tue, 2 Mar 2010 12:26:18 +1000

So far this year it’s been a bit like 40 days and 40 nights of rain, just with a few interludes in between. The dams are mostly overflowing, and soon there biggest dam should probably be full, which is great news for SE Queensland, just no where else.

The SEQ Water website lists the Brisbane catchment at 77.7% capacity, while Hinze Dam on the Gold Coast has been overflowing for 2 weeks apparently. In fact barring a few catchments, most dams are overflowing in SEQ.

What this all means for the golf I’m not sure. By late this evening the rain finally stopped falling, other than a few small showers here and there. I’m not sure what tomorrow will bring, but even if it were to dry up from now till Sunday, the course is already under water in parts, with all bunkers officially ponds. I wonder if the tournament will be cancelled.

Sze Sze’s training was surprisingly cancelled, though it’s not good for her as she doesn’t get paid if she doesn’t do any coaching.

Dinner tonight was pizza, and we enjoyed our pizza while channel 9 fucked up what was to be the new series of Top Gear. For years it has run on SBS without a hiccup, and now channel 9 has it, they showed the first episode last week, and the 4th this week, while listing the synopsis for the second episode and then showing an episode from 3 years ago too. They couldn’t handle the Olympics and they can’t handle basic TV programming.

Training Cancelled

Mon, 1 Mar 2010 12:25:28 +1000

And finally... it’s Autumn. It’ll probably be stinking hot again when all this rain has stopped falling, but for now it’s quite cool, and very wet.

So wet that Sze Sze’s touch training was cancelled today, though only because she was due to be coaching younger girls. Tomorrow, rain or shine (most likely rain) she’ll have to at least do a gym session with the older girls.

Even though training was cancelled, I still took her into town this afternoon to meet up with friends and see about getting her passport renewed. As she has a long name she’s run into a couple of snags with fitting the name on the form, but she’ll fit it in, send it off, and if there’s a problem they can phone.

I bought some wine this afternoon, taking advantage of a bonus points offer from BWS. I bought a Cow Bombie Cabernet Merlot and a Craftsman Shiraz, both for $15. I tried the Cow Bombie tonight and found it surprisingly smooth, a nice drop for the price.

I don’t always write these entries in order, so going backwards in time a bit, this morning I watched Canada beat USA in the ice hockey final. Channel 9 gave me the impression it was live, but it wasn’t. We then watched the closing ceremony that started out well, and although it had Michael Bublé, it wasn’t that special in the end.

Yvonne prepared dinner for us tonight, making us a shepherds pie (potato pie as they say in QLD), so we ate well.

Shortly after midnight the skies opened up with some incredibly heavy rain. It’s good though, nothing like falling asleep to that sound.

Pouring

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 12:30:14 +1000

I almost forgot to do this entry tonight.

It rained a lot today, with no end in sight according to the weather report. I’m not sure how they’re going to play the Ladies Masters at the end of the week, if it rains any more the course could be under by the end of the week.

Dinner tonight was a little unhealthy and cheap, we went to McDonald’s, but we got our protein in and enough cheese to send our cholesterol sky high, but were sufficiently filled by the end of the meal.