updates

>> tuesday was thai dinner day with my ex-colleague from melbourne. It was good to finally catch up with him, after months of assurance that he will come visit some day. I don't get many interstate visitors, some of which come as close to sydney but never made the trip down south thinking that wollongong is some ulu place many thousand kilometres away. in case you aren't aware, i am only an hour plus drive away from the fringe of the big city.

>> russell fragar made a special appearance at our wednesday band practice night. he has since lost quite a bit of weight from the last time i took a photo with him five years ago. nevertheless, he's looking better than ever, and has been leading the creative ministry at a church in virginia for the past five years since moving on from hillsong church.

>> finals of the uni band competition took off on thursday. i rocked up at seven only to find out that the band i came to support had been drawn to play last, which means i had three and a half hours to kill. but i was so glad i stayed on, not to mention another half hour wait for the results, none of that mattered because the free agent crew won! more than three quarters of the dance floor was, for certain, jam packed with people like us from church supporting that band, four of which are brothers whom we came to cheer on. it was a good time of hip hop, funk and reggae music. they certainly won by a mile. go boys! they will now progress to the nsw southern region semi final to be played out at uni next month. we've got home ground advantage, so come support!

>> draggy friday - that's what it felt like. combination of sleep deprivation and dateline stress in the name of an active social life. i think it's important, otherwise i'll become stupid. serious. i went out later that night for dinner and drinks with my colleagues - to celebrate and farewell DM who is moving on to a different area of the company. there will be many more farewells to come until the group can shrink to a sustainable level. and what is wrong with cranberry vodka?

>> sunny saturday in sydney. went shopping at bondi junction but shockingly did not buy anything, again. maybe that's a good thing because seriously, i have not finish cycling the clothes i have in my wardrobe. i don't have that many, but have learnt to mix and match pretty well. we hopped over to a friend's housewarming party in zetland after that. it is true that if you space out your food intake, your tummy has the chance to register that and inform your brain that it's close to being stuffed - and all i had was a snag, a small beef steak, three tiny sushi rolls, a few spoonfuls of curry chicken on mashies, and two glasses of coke over a four hour period. oh, and not to mention a very nice cocktail concoction made by the hostess, but still to feel the effects the next day was really, unbelievable. i must do this more often, spacing out my food intake, otherwise i will continue to be an unnecessarily overstocked food vessel.

>> i love sundays. and i learnt about paradoxes today. the bible is filled with paradoxes, which are seemingly contradictory statements that may nonetheless be true. you are richest when you are poorest. jesus died so we can live. give away so you can keep.

>> monday madness happens quite often. i'll be struggling to find my feet, search for documents, remember what i did last week and what i need to do this week. and i found out that my colleague's son had developed chicken pox on saturday. what can i do? where can i run? he could be carrying the contagious virus with him. don't laugh, i have yet to be infected and i don't intend to have any rashes or blisters on me, thank you very much. i hope you get the hint to stay home with your son. and we got badly beaten by more than thirty goals tonight by the top team in the ladder. we aren't doing that bad either - on second. the departure of our goal defender due to injury and the random replacement who obviously did not care less was such a demoralising experience. enough said.