What are you waiting for?

AHHHHHHHH!

Why, oh why, is it so dammed hard for people to communicate in this place!!

They said to me that I would know about the "Technical Training Consultant" position that I applied for on Wednesday 14/11/07.

What's the date today? Friday 16/11/07! And still no answer as to whether I got the job!

AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I HATE this waiting! I mean would it really be so bloody hard for them to just send me an email or a quick call to say.. "Hi, we are just waiting on "Blah" reason and we will let you know as soon as possible."

They already know that they want me, so for god's sake... TELL ME ALREADY!

Is that really so much to ask for?!?! Barh!


On an UP note, I saw MUSE at Rod Laver Arena last night. I have to say that I dislike the place as a venue to hear music. What is it with Australia and their "Sports Arenas"? Why do we not have any "Performance Centres"? It's not like we don't have enough world class performers coming to this country now...

As to Muse's performance, well I have to say that I think they were WAY better when they played at Festering Hall in January this year. The performance at Festering Hall was tighter and flowed smoother, the sound was much better, and they really connected to the crowd; which is really important for such an emotive band.

That's not to say that I didn't enjoy the night seeing them, it was just obvious that after 18 months of touring around the world they were a little over it. There were a few technical problems too, but all in all it was still worth the $80 odd dollars to see them.

L8R folks!

"Let the mind be enlarged to the grandeur of the mysteries, and not the mysteries contracted to the narrowness of the mind." - Francis Bacon

I imagine that right now, you're feeling a bit like Alice. Hmm? Tumbling down the rabbit hole?

OK... So it's been a while.... Again! So I'm not that great at the constant updates, but then I have been pretty busy too...

The podzine is going REALLY well, in fact we have been picked up by an online radio station "BeatFM" (www.beatfm.com.au) which is really huge news for us! :)

My photography is also going really well too. David bought me an upgraded camera for my birthday last month and I have set up a "DSLR Savings Fund" which is a two year project to purchase my dream camera. :)

You can check out my latest work here... http://www.flickr.com/photos/escapethematrix/


Works has been a little odd, but odd in a good way. For the first time since starting with MLC almost 4.5 years ago I am actually volunteering to do Overtime and even offered to change my annual leave to a later date!! So what's changed?

Mostly it's because I had my end of year review and my manager gave my a kick arse review and told me how proud she was of me. It's amazing what a little positive reinforcement can do. At the same time I started being approached by a few of the other managers in my department and they offered me a couple of projects, which has been great! I've since been approached by people from other departments for other projects now, the problem is that now I think I may be a little too busy!! ;-P

Some other really exciting news that's work related is that there is a major re organisational change happening. One of the changes is the complete recreation of the Learning & Development department, they are building from the ground up. From a work/career perspective it's a very exciting time. What makes it more so is that there is a "Technical Training Consultant" position available, which I applied for.

I had me first interview about 2 weeks ago with a 2 person panel over the phone for an hour and 20 mins, a weird experience. I found out at the end of last week that I have moved onto the next stage, the 2nd interview. This one was to be face to face with the L&D manager and one other person. Well I had that interview yesterday afternoon at 4pm! I was a little un-nerved to discover that none else from Melbourne who applied internally has been successful thus far. I think the 2nd interview went well, it was a pretty positive experience, but of course the Wookstar seem to think I have Aced it! :)

Ultimately I find out tomorrow. I REALLY want this. I will no doubt let you know what happens... You will hear me screaming for joy or sorrow tomorrow... :-/

I hope that I will be able to catch up with many of you soon, for some of you it's been WAY too long!

Love to you all.

"Let the mind be enlarged to the grandeur of the mysteries, and not the mysteries contracted to the narrowness of the mind." - Francis Bacon

The Invasion Begins!

Hello fellow Bloggers!

My long time friend Raz and I have been very busy boys of late... We have put together a little "Podzine" called "Invasion of the Pod People".

Click here to download

Using the link above you can download a copy of our first episode (which we hope to have on iTunes very soon too), you can listen to the show from the web page if you do not have an MP3 player or you can download it and just play it on your computer.

You can email us at razandbeatboy@yahoo.com.au to provide us with feedback and tell us how FAB we are! ;-P Or you can log onto our web page and leave comments there too...

Invasion of the Pod People

Please be advised that if you are offended my the use of strong language (ie a single use of the "C" word), then you may wish to skip the "Rant" segment of the show. Consider yourself warned.

If you are an unsigned musician and are not a member of APRA (because then we can not use your work) and would like to be featured on the show please send us an email to the address above.

I hope you enjoy our little creation and we look forward to hearing you feedback.

Next show is in 2 weeks!

Plugged back into the Matrix...

OK, so I've been a little slack since coming home from Europe.
OK a LOT slack! ;-)

But being reinserted into the Matrix with full memory of what it was like on the outside was a pretty depressing time. Even now as I remember our time in Paris I still get a tear in the eye and wish we were back there now...

On the up side, I'm back with my friends & family! Yay to that! :-)

Just after we returned from Europe we took a little trip up to Sydney to visit some very close friends we had not seen for about a year, Alan & Philip. As a surprise I had only organised with Alan that we were coming up and that Philip was not to know. When we arrived we were at their place out on the balcony overlooking the bay. When Philip came home we hid on the balcony and gave him quit the surprise.

The trip also happened to coincide with "the Wooksta's" (my hubby) birthday, so we took him out to a great Mediterranean restaurant called "Bel Mondo" which is located on the Rocks, looking out at the big "coat hanger" bridge. The food, company, view and evening was fabulous and a great time was had by all, even if the Wooksta did get another year older.

At the end of Feb we held a bit of a welcome home party in the form of a good old fashioned high tech slide night! We booked out the "good room" upstairs of our local cafe Seddon Deadly Sins, set up a projector screen and music on the ipod with food and drinks for all. A very fun night was had by all and it was great to catch up with people, especially some that I have not see in almost two years!! :-)

March and April we've been a little flat out with work and trying to catch up with some of our friends on the weekends, but I'm too sure how much we have accomplished. I did get to do a bit more of my photograph over the past few months which has been really good. I've really developed a love of photography since Europe. It's something I loved to do n high school but never got the chance to do it as an adult. You can check out my shots here... www.flickr.com/photos/escapethematrix/

I have signed up for a couple of online courses, photography and photoshop, which start in the next week. I'm very excited. :)

May is the month of our wedding anniversary (May 7th), and this year we thought we might head back up to Sydney to catch up with some friends and spend some time together away from the house. It was a really nice weekend, despite a couple of set backs and a hotel that was sub par and not at all what it claimed to be advertising on the net. We did get to the Sydney Aquarium which was a great way to spend morning. They have a "touch pool" where you can do as the name might suggest... touch stuff; like star-fish and baby sharks which have a surprisingly rough skin. They also have a seal enclosure who are just the cutest things.

We also went for a walk through the Chinese Garden of Friendship which is right next to Darling Harbour and where we were staying. These are the most beautiful gardens, and like a true "happy snappy" as Wooksta likes to call me, I took lots of photos. There is nowhere in the gardens that you can see the complete layout, it's designed so that you need to walk through it to see what it has to offer. There is also a small lake in the centre of the gardens which is full of huge cod and eels which look very cool.

For the night of our anniversary I took Wooksta to "Cafe Sydney", situated on the top floor of the Customs House in Circular Quay. This place is superb. The food, service, atmosphere, decor (yeah I'm gay), oh and the view is pretty special too. Looking directly out over the harbour, with the Bridge to your left and the Opera House to your right and ships & ferries all lit up moving in and out of the harbour. The food here was so good that I physically felt ill after we left because I had eaten so much! If you want somewhere special to eat in Sydney, then check this place out.

Well that pretty much brings us up to date with everything so.... I will leave it there for now and chat to you all later!

"Let the mind be enlarged to the grandeur of the mysteries, and not the mysteries contracted to the narrowness of the mind." - Francis Bacon

"...So what did you think of her, the woman in the red dress?..."

"...She doesn't talk very much, but if you'd like to meet her, I can arrange a much more personalized meeting.

Digital pimp, hard at work..."

As we sit in the BA lounge at the airport waiting for the flight home (Boo), I thought I might the chance to catch you up on the trip.

I think I might work my way backwards from our most recent pitstop...

AMSTERDAM

We were only there for 2 nights, but we could have spent at least a week, easily. This is a very fun, safe (relatively speaking), liberal, accepting and colourful city.

In fact the city is famous for it's colours.

Green for it's dope, of which you can buy about 10 different varieties! Unfortunately, we did not get to enjoy with the locals due to only staying for a very limited time and having colds. Yeah, we picked up a second cold from London. :(

Red for it's "Red Light District", which I found a little disappointing and very tame. In fact, the only thing I saw any of the girls playing with was their mobiles! It was so tame that out of the multitude of windows that we passed, I only saw 1 single boob! Not even a full pair, and I don't even think she was aware that she was showing it!

Rainbow colours, not just for all of the rainbow flags (symbol of a gay/gay friendly business), but also for their famous tulips. None of which we ever saw other than in a shop.

The only museum that we got to see was the Vincent Van Gogh Museum, which was a powerful and highly emotional journey. This man was a genius whose life was cut very short. He was filled with an inner torment and a constant questioning of self-worth. However, there were certainly times of hope, joy, friendship brilliance & beauty which balanced his destructive, depression & his illness (they believe a form of epilepsy).

I did want to check out "Anne Frank's" house ("she's in the attic"), based on the recommendation of a friend, but the line was over an hour long! Sorry, but we only had 1 full day and 2 1/4 days due to airport travel. No time to waste waiting.

We got up early on the one full day we had with every intention of getting as much as possible done. However, in true "stoner" fashion, the city doesn't wake up until 9 or 10am. So we figured that a scenic way of seeing the city was a canal tour, but this didn't start until 11! Alas, half our day was almost gone...

As I said, we checked out the Van Gogh Museum which took us to an early dinner (in an Aussie 'restaurant' - David was hankering for a burger and wanted to view the cricket highlights). Checked out a gay pub and then walked around the city until we hit the Red Light District before heading back to the hotel.

The next morning we got up early and walked through the city to the "Homomonument" which is three different pink, granite triangles set in the ground and form the cornerstones of a larger triangle. This is to commemorate all gay & lesbian (glbti) people who have been oppressed, tortured or murdered during times of war & intolorent regimes.

We checked out of our hotel and casually strolled over the bridges and alonside the canals; pausing to view through shops and stalls of irredescent tulips, tasty pomme frittes, open air loos and other little momentos to celebrate our time in Amsterdam. We also took photos of the locks, bridges, buildings and the bicycle park which was as big as a 3 story car park.

We then strolled to the train station, caught the train out to the airport and headed back to London.

NYE (London)

We caught up with friends (Mal & Tony, Ted & Christopher and Shayne) for some drinks a chatting before heading out to the dance party at a club called XXL. Yeah, it's a reference to the type of guys that go there, "Bears & Cubs" (Bears = big hairy men, Cubs = younger Bears) and their admirers. The club and people were great, very, VERY friendly, but the music was very hit & miss. A very fun night was had never the less and we left the club at about 3:30am and walked home across Tower Bridge in full moonlight.

Very romantic!

PARIS

"...We'll always have Paris..."

This place is just magical and, until you experience it, you really can't understand just how much this is true.

Here's a quick rundown on what we did -
- Louvre Museum
- Musee D'Orsee
- Picasso Museum
- Champs Elysse
- Effil Tower (even got to the very top!)
- Arc de Triumph
- Fauchon
- Yule Eve Feast
Oh and shopping! :)

The people here a so lovely and friendly. Even though I learnt a small amount of French (and I really mean the basics), there were very few time where we had a truely difficult time communicating. On the very few occasions when there was a problem with understanding each other, if there was another customer in the store everyone would help with the little bits of languages that they knew. You may come out with a little more, less or different than what you were looking for, but it was often an entertaining experience. ;)

I love Paris, I was very sad to leave...

ROME

You can got five steps without tripping over a collumn, ancient ruin, archeological dig or vespa! This is a true state of fact. Crossing t e roads in Rome is a battle of wills that you must not fail or you will never cross.

Bugger, out of time... Flight's been call.
See you all at home soon.