January 2008 Archives

I've been home all week and spending my days watching the tennis and it's been incredible. Tonight Nadal and Tsonga are playing in the semi-final and poor Rafa is getting beaten. He's my favourite player at the moment and this French dude seems to have come from nowhere and is blowing them all off the court. I keep hoping Rafa is going to do something fantastic but he can't seem take a trick.

Queensland is only a couple of days away now and we're all getting pretty excited. I'm starting to get a few things together that we'll need to take. Alex is quite nervous about flying after seeing on the news recently that plane in England that just seemed to fall out of the sky.

It's day 4 for my non-smoking self and it seems to be going good. The patches seem to work well. I don't have cravings for cigarettes, but when I'm having a coffee it does seem like something's missing. I guess that will get better with time. I have a good excuse sitting just outside for not wanting to buy cigarettes ever again, and I'm thoroughly enjoying the new car.

I'm shattered, Nadal just got flogged: 6-2, 6-3, 6-2. I wouldn't mind putting money on a Federa / Tsonga grand final. That will be very interesting. After watching the tennis all week, I hope I get to see the final.

I looked at a new car on Saturday morning and today the kids and I went to Wagga to pick it up. It's a 2002 Commonwealth Games Limited Edition Mitsubishi Magna. I think that means that everything that would be extras on another car came standard on this one. I love it. It drives beautifully, the air-conditioning works really good (unlike my old car), it has cruise-control, air bags, a CD player, and when we opened the boot to have a look: bonus - a Clarion 6 CD stacker. Very cool.... I transferred over the comprehensive insurance from the old car this morning, and the new car comes with a full 12-months registration, so I'm not looking at rego as soon as I come back from Queensland. The old one is due next month so I've saved there.

I decided too that I couldn't afford a new car unless I gave away the cigarettes and so today rather than buy another packer, I bought the nicotine patches instead. They seem to be working ok, except for a slight itch around the patch, and a bit of tingling that I noticed around my lips (don't know what that was about). It hasn't stopped me thinking I should be lighting up though, I keep going for my cigarettes but I haven't got any. Then I remember that I don't really want one, it's just the habit of lighting up that I need to break. It feels a bit weird. I've been smoking for over three quarters of my life and I miss smoking already. Ha ha, it's only day one, God only knows what I'll be like tomorrow.

Today we got new computers at work and I've been looking forward to this day since back in November when they were ordered. I've gone from 512 MB RAM to 2GB, and upgraded to a flat-screen 19" monitor. The computers have dual core processors and now instead of waiting for Windows to slowly paint each screen, it's suddenly very quick. It was a happy day.

Most of the day was spent fine tuning the computer and installing all the special software I use for website work. Very little actual work got done until quite late this afternoon. Nobody was complaining, though. It's been a very quiet week. My manager is having the week off and the Building Surveyor is filling in for him. He's hardly been around what with management and council meetings to attend. Not that I'm complaining, it's given me a chance to fine-tune the Junee Rhythm 'n Rail website and website design is probably my favourite part of my job.

Tomorrow's my last day and then I'm on holidays for two weeks so I imaging there'll plenty waiting for me when I get back.

This time of year many of us decide to pack up and get away from it all, which means big business for hotels, motels and caravan parks all across the country.

If you're looking for a getaway that's a little different, you'd do well to check out the new list of the world's extraordinary luxury hotels compiled by Forbes magazine.

The list features:

Ice Hotel, Quebec, Canada. Created anew each year out of 15,000 pounds of snow and 500 pounds of ice, the 34-room hotel features an ice chapel, two art galleries and a host of outdoor activities. The temperature inside the hotel ranges from 23 to 28 degrees Fahrenheit, and the beds are carved from ice. You don't sleep directly on the ice, though -- there's a wooden plank between the ice and a comfy mattress, plus you're insulated with a special sleeping bag that can withstand the harshest climes (-40 degrees Fahrenheit).

Propeller Island City Lodge, Berlin, Germany. Would you rather sleep in a coffin or in a bed atop a castle? Each of the 31 rooms in this hotel is designed totally around a different theme, such as the orange room and the symbol room (tiled entirely with wooden blocks painted with 300 different symbols). Pictured below is the Padded Cell.

Library Hotel, New York City, where each floor is designed after one of the 10 categories of the Dewey Decimal System, such as Math and Science and Religion, and each room houses part of the hotel's collection of 6,000 books.

The Ariau Towers Hotel, Brazil lets you sleep in the treetops of the Amazon Rainforest. "Tarzan's house," for example, is perched on stilts 80 feet above the ground. Situated on the bank of the Negro River, Ariau's suites are linked by a series of catwalks.

Jules Undersea Lodge, Key Largo, Florida - a former research lab located underwater in a tropical mangrove habitat, and guests must scuba dive 21 feet to get to the main lobby that can accommodate up to six guests, and each air-conditioned room features a 42-inch window in the water.

If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, doesn't it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, models deposed, tree surgeons debarked, and dry cleaners depressed?

We've been suffering through a heatwave since the New Year and temperatures have been in the high 30s or low 40s every day, Work is great because we've got fantastic air conditioning, I've even had to turn it off because it's too cold. It's a wonder we haven't come down with summer colds (the worst kind) because of the extremes in temperature. You walk outside and it's like walking into a furnace. Getting into the car is worse. It's not too bad at home, the air-conditioning has been running flat out and last night I was still tossing and turning at 2 a.m. so I slept on the lounge. The alarm went off in the bedroom as usual, but of course I didn't hear it so it was a mad rush to get ready for work this morning.

Here it is already the 10th January and this is my first post this year. It doesn't bode well for 2008. I have read a couple of books though, and done a mile of research on Urban Salinity, a subject I wish I'd never heard of. Next week it should be all behind me when I've completed the final assignment for TAFE. Can't wait!!!!

Today Alex and I had a real treat. I had to drive over to Wagga for work and put up some posters for a skateboarding clinic that's happening in Junee on 21 and 22 January, so I drove a new Mercedes over, with only 500 k's on the clock. What a pleasure to drive! Alex had the sun roof open and closed several times, the seats were going up and down, back and forwards, he had an absolute ball. It was pure luxury. Now I definitely want a new car...

Carly has been in Wagga for the last couple of days with Lauren and looks like being there a couple more. Her boyfriend lives in Wagga too so she's in no hurry to come home yet, and as long as Lauren doesn't mind, that's fine with me. It's peace and quiet here at home without Carly and Alex at each other, so I'm enjoying it while I can.