GenesisDreams

Late Christmas

General
Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all had a happy new year. I know this is very, very late. But it's better late than never. Facebook is killing this blog. I can't poke anyone here! The news in brief is not very interesting, and the extended version is worse. Happy birthday NashDJ! You know who you are, even if you don't call yourself that anymore. Congratulations on getting engaged! Take it easy everyone and don't work too hard!

Review

General Time flies so fast. I wonder is Facebook going to do away with this blog once and for all? We are blocking it at work (which I am getting a lot of grief about) because we noticed that a lot of bandwidth was getting sucked up by it. Not that I ever logged in at work, but it is amazing how much time other people were! So anyway to keep this blog updated, I will tell you what I've been up to... Well I've been out to the states again. Flew to Seattle to do some consulting with Microsoft on the new Microsoft Project Server 2007 certification. Yes guys, you read that right, I was paid to go do some work at Microsoft! My first time to Seattle and it was awesome! I am going back the end of this month for the Microsoft Project Conference, which should be good. I am definitely racking up the frequent flyer miles. I've also started going to the gym regularly at Nikkie's urging (she is worried about my heart) and I am actually getting to like it. It really hasn't had any effect on my body as far as I can tell, but it's nice to get out of the house from time to time. I am looking forward to Christmas. Mum and Rodney are coming over and Nikkie and I are hosting so we are trying to do some practice on cooking a roast! That's all from me for now. I hope everyone is well. Take care all. M

Starbucks

General I am sat in the Starbucks down from Kings Cross in London on Friday afternoon thoroughly exhausted after an extremely long week. I should be working, but instead I am procrastinating and trying this entry. I don't have much to say, other than that if you have too much Starbucks you start buzzing! Take it easy all, and don't say I don't update this blog, even if I don't update it with anything meaningful. M

Wedding Bells

Friends - General - Personal - Travel Before anyone gets too excited, no I am not getting married! My mother is though, to a fabulous bloke called Rodney, and I am flying back to Australia for the wedding. I fly in on the 25th of March, the Wedding is on the 31st of March, I am staying for Easter, and then flying back to the UK on the 11th of April. The 11th also happens to be my little brother Jeremy’s birthday, and thankfully my flight leaves late at night, so I will have time to celebrate it with him. I will email everyone in due course, as I know that as I so rarely update this blog now, that most of you guys out there will want to know that I am coming back and won’t find out from here. I am looking forward to coming back in March, it will be the first time I’ve been back close to summer for almost four years now. I am really looking forward to coming back. It is a short trip this time. My current visa is valid for the next five years, so I don’t need to faff about with anything to do with that. I have also got things in place at work so that I shouldn’t be bothered too much. I realise I haven’t let anyone know where I am living or really what I am doing at the moment here in the UK. It is a cold Saturday morning here right now, so I am going to take some time to go over it all. First some pictures! I am currently living in a beautiful old house that has been converted into flats. It is called: The Croft! I am currently driving a brand new (well new in September, with 56 plates) Black VW Golf GTI. It allows me to go far to fast for my own good, and I got my first ever speeding ticket in it in the first month of driving it. Here is a picture of me standing outside the Croft, on a wet, bleak Liverpool day, with My Golf! Here are some other random pictures that my friend Viki took when she Ben (ex-housemates) came to stay between Christmas and New Year. This is: My Bed, this is: My Coat Rack, this is My Desk, this is My Dinner Table, this is My Kitchen, and this is not my Guitar. Things have been absolutely manic around here like they have been for the past two years. I am really proud of where I’ve gotten to though. I’m head of department for thirteen people, I have generated turned things around and we are now a profit centre rather than a cost centre, I’ve created new business directly out of our work, and I’m also half way through doing my MSc, just a dissertation to go now! I send all you guys individual emails because I really do want to catch up properly and see how everyone is going. Take care!

Cold Christmas

General Merry Christmas everyone! I am in London and it is cold! We have already won the ashes, so I am not going to bother staying up and watching the Boxing Day Test Match. I miss everyone back home! I am having a fantastic third Christmas over here. Next montth will mark the beginning of my fourth year here in the UK. Time flies. I hope everyone is well and taking care of themselves. If you didn't get a christmas card in the mail it is becuase I am a slack friend! you should at least have gotten a catch up email. That is my plan for the rest of today anyway. Take it easy all, have a very merry christmas and a happy new year.

Incomplete

General Hello everyone! It feels like a lifetime since I last updated this blog. I am alive and well, still living and working in the UK, still madly in love with my gorgeous girlfriend Nikkie, and still running around out of my mind busy with everything I’ve got on my plate at the moment. I am writing this on the train down to Nottingham. As usual it is the only bit of free time I get to do anything like this. As we head into Sheffield the 3G connection gets so bad I can’t access the network anymore, and my mobile stops ringing for a brief period, so I can actually concentrate and get stuck into writing a blog entry. This will probably one of the last times I get the train down to Nottingham. Nikkie graduates from Physiotherapy in four weeks and is then leaving Nottingham and moving in with me up in Liverpool. I am incredibly excited about this; after doing the semi-long distance thing for more than a year now I can hardly begin to imagine how great it will be to have her around all the time. I’ve been trying to make everything ready for her over the past couple of months. We have fixed up the bathroom, repainted and cleaned up the kitchen, painted the bedroom and cleared away a lot of the old and ugly furniture. Now the place is in a state where I think we both can be happy. Nik has moved a lot of her books and bits and pieces up already and we just have a final big couple of car-fulls to do when she finally moves out of Nottingham. So Nikkie is going to be moving in with me in June, that’s one bit of big news, the other is that come August, we are both going to be coming back to Australia to visit! That’s right, thanks to the anal nature of Her Majesty’s Government and their attitude on issuing work permits, I will be flying back home at works expense to renew my visa. I haven’t got the exact dates sorted out as yet; the immigration lawyer we are using is still finalising a few things with my application, but around August time Nikkie and I will be flying back down under to sunny old Brisbane. We are coming for an actual holiday this time. I don’t have to work, I don’t have to do any study or go on any courses, it will be three to four weeks of relaxing while I wait for my visa application to be processed. So ladies and gentlemen, cancel your plans, free up your diaries, because Michael is coming to town and I’ll be free to party! This should be the last time I’ll have to come back because of visa issues. My new visa will be valid for five years, and after I have been in the UK that long I can apply for citizenship and get a hold of that holy grail of a British passport. Anyway I never did get around to finishing this on the train, so I am posting it incomplete now, five days later.

Birthday Message

General I originally sent this to Ads as birthday thankyou. I've cut and pasted bits and pieces of it here because I realise I haven't posted in ages, and this email pretty much sums up what I've been up to recently. So enjoy! So here is the story of my Birthday weekend. Nikkie had this whole thing planned out. As I would me working on my actual birthday and Nikkie had placement so couldn't be in Liverpool we decided to celebrate a few days early on the weekend I was down. So when I woke up on Saturday morning Nikkie gave me a little card. It had a clue written on it in Japanese!! I could translate a bit of it (Omedetou! Happy Birthday, some more stuff) but not all of it. She had used a web based translator to convert her clue into Japanese, so of course that garbled it! And when I plugged the Japanese back into the translator to get it back to English it garbled it even more! This is what it came out as: "Michael who is questioned with the your birthday, as for this Sawayama who is mystery travelling which celebrates your birthday the profit which is given do, the first part which can dress the clothes… If you prepare, it should start, to be warm the church day whose atmosphere is good" Basically Nikkie said that it was supposed to mean, "Happy Birthday, get out of bed, get dressed, get ready, we are going out for some coffee". We were meant to head out to Pitcher and Piano (you know, the pub in the Church) for some early drinks, so I did as I was told, and then headed out. Pitcher was closed though, so we went to Starbucks instead! There we had nice coffee and Nikkie gave me the second clue card, which had an address written on it and a print out of a street map. So we went wandering and finally found our way to the Skinny Sumo restaurant, which I had been saying I wanted to go to for about two years now, and where Nikkie had booked us a table for lunch. Unfortunately the lunch was not as good as I would have liked. As franchised as it is, I far prefer Wagamama's food. We still had a great time though, drinking green tea and talking about this, that and everything. It was there that Nikkie gave me my third clue card, and it threw me a little. The card started off "Wigs", and the first thing I said to Nik when I ready that was, "Hey, since when do you call me Wigs?". I then read some more. So here is where I do the whole "Wow!, Thank you!, I can't believe it!" thing. Seriously mate, I was totally shocked. It was a really great surprise. The fact that you even thought to send me a present was great, and when I opened it up to reveal the unbelievably slick, cool, shit fucking hot IPod Nano, in BLACK!, well that really made my day. Thank you Zim, and please pass my thanks on to everyone else was well. You made an ex-pat Aussie miss his home like never before, and miss his friends more than anything. Really though mate, what prompted this other than a deep seeded guilt regarding an ant-filled log in my toilet? I had almost even forgotten my own birthday, I didn't expect anyone else to remember! Nikkie got me the latest Jordan book and a great chess set for my birthday, which was great of her. We've been playing loads of chess recently and she is really good, so I am challenged each time I play her. It was a fantastic birthday overall. I got great presents, a super surprise and really enjoyed myself. Thanks again for the IPOD, it's been terrific so far. I would never have bought one for myself (you know me and not embracing new tech, though I did buy myself a nice 19" LCD the other day), but now I've got it I don't go anywhere without it. It's got all my music on it, plus the Pimsler Japanese lessons, and whenever I'm waiting for something, anything, I stick my headphones in a listen away. Very cool indeed. Anyway so I've got to give some sort of excuse as to why it has taken me so bloody long to reply, so I am now going to bore you with everything I've been up to these past couple of weeks. Well the biggest thing that has consumed my focus recently has been the Microsoft Office Project Conference 2006, which was held in Munich last week at the Arabella Sheraton. I had mentioned in passing to Paul that I would be interested in going and before I knew it I was packed off in a plane to the freezing Bavarian world of crazy Germans. The conference was fantastic, Microsoft really know how to put on a show, and all the guys who were talking were mini-geek-celebrities, so it was fun to watch. It ran over three days and they talked about all sorts of interesting stuff. During the opening key-note the main presenter was given a pair of lederhosen, which had me laughing for the rest of the week. The conference was held in the hotel, and it being 5 stars, and me being on expenses, I had a truly wonderful time. Boy I was exhausted and terribly hung over after it. So much German beer!! It was a great experience and I came away with a lot of really good ideas and a definite way forward for the project we are currently working on and future plans for other projects. So yeah my life has been consumed with work recently. Partly it had to do with preparing for this conference, but I've also been bumped up the ranks a little again, and I've got to deal with all the crap my predecessor left behind. In the last month we got rid of two of the IT guys who really weren't pulling their weight and hired two more on to replace them. In the process I somehow have ended up running the show. Crazy hey! So now I am managing six guys, developers, support and infrastructure people, and I am now spending more of my time project managing them than developing enterprise project management systems. I am back to working 80 hour weeks in order to get everything done and it is causing me to go grey early ^_^ I'm getting it under control now though. Most of my problems originated because of the bad job the guy before was doing. These are almost all cleaned up now and things have calmed down a little. I'm still being swamped with organisational issues rather than technical issues, which I don't know if I like, but it is fantastic experience and I am learning a great deal as I go along. Geoff says that now I've got control of the IT budget I should squeeze in a PA for myself to take some of the administrative load off. I don't know if I am quite there yet but I am considering it ^^ We've come along way in the last couple of months though. I've gotten the company registered as a Microsoft Certified Partner, revamped our development procedure, changed the strategic direction of the department, and put some effort into marketing and selling what we are doing. Before now we were pretty much 25% Innovation and 75% Operation. I want to swap those around, we should only be spending a quarter of our time keeping everything we've got going on running, the rest should be spent developing new things. I've actually got a department head strategy meeting this morning to outline to the MD where we are going. I am supposed to have budget forecasts ready for that, but I'm writing this to you instead. It's 6.30 am in the morning and I am freezing cold! Someone tried kicking Nikkie's front door in on Sunday. Nik was down in London for her Mum's birthday thankfully, but her housemate Jade was there and said it was really frightening. Nik was obviously a bit worried about it, so she bunked off placement on Monday and came up to my place to spend the night. I left work early yesterday and went down to Nottingham for the night to look after her. To get back up to Liverpool for my early strategy meeting though I was on the 5.24am red-eye back from Nottingham to Liverpool. I'm wired from coffee and can't be assed doing budget reports though, so I am writing to you. My life seems all consumed with work of late. Actually come to this of it my life has been all consumed with work for the last six months! It has been more than two years since I first came the UK. I've had three birthdays here so far and will likely have many more. Three birthdays!! How time flies by. It seems like just yesterday mate that you were camped out on my couch eating crazy potato chip and egg concoctions. When are you planning on coming back this way? Finish your PhD and get back over here mate!

Australia Day!

General Happy Australia Day Everyone! We celebrated it here, not with a day off and a BBQ, but with baking some ANZAC biscuits and distributing them at work. Nikkie and I experimented with the recipe and came up with something vaguely resembling the real thing. They were very yummy. Work is full on, as always. I passed my Microsoft Exam 70-281 - Planning, Deploying, and Managing an Enterprise Project Management Solution on Tuesday. So now I am a Microsoft Certified Professional. Yay me! I have been doing the stuff for six months now so the exam wasn’t too difficult, but it was good to finally get it out of the way. Work is getting increasingly diverse, I’m doing less technical stuff which I’m missing, but everything else I am doing is new and exciting. I will write more soon, but for now I just wanted to say Hi! I’m still alive, and I miss home.

2005

General So the year is coming to a close. I am sat in the study of Nikkie’s parents place, tying to bring everything together in my mind about what’s been going on this past month. Going in reverse is probably easiest. Last night we went out for dinner with all of Nikkie’s school friends. It was strange, I was sat at a table with nine 20 year old girls, but didn’t really feel out of place. I had met a few of them before, but most of them I was meeting for the first time. The conversation flowed naturally, and they all were catching up on each other’s lives. I think Nikkie’s group of highschool friends is very much like mine. It was interesting as an outsider to look in at it all, to make objective observations. Nikkie is very much like me, she had to get away. Most of her friends still live locally and go to university locally and see each other regularly. Not Nikkie, she moved far away to Nottingham and only sees them all every couple of months. It’s an interesting dynamic and I was really happy to be a part of it. I did miss everyone back home a little sitting there and seeing how they all just slotted back in together so well. I’ll probably do a new years ring around and that will make it all better. We went to the after Christmas sales in Reading yesterday. Nikkie bought a handbag and a dress and some underwear and loads of other things. I limited myself to a shirt and tie. Boring I know. Reading was a nice little town. I hadn’t been there before, and it was good to add yet another British town to my list of places visited. It snowed yesterday and the day before, and everything outside was blanketed with a beautiful crisp layer of white. We went for a walk with all of Nikkie’s family on Tuesday, down the hill from her village, along and then across the Thames and into a small country pub where we had lunch. The countryside was beautiful, all white and fresh and wrapped up warming in my winter coat holding hands with my gorgeous girlfriend I couldn’t have been happier. Christmas and Boxing Day were fun. I was fully brought into the Foster Family Christmas Tradition. We sat around the fire and opened our presents, we had a big Christmas dinner, we drank wine and played cards, it was a very warm and loving environment. Nikkie bought me a copy of my favourite book, Haruki Murakami‘s Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World and some wonderfully posh cufflinks. I got her some soppy stuff I’m not going to mention, the full Manga of Castle in the Sky, which she loves, and numerous other bits and pieces. Before that we were up in Liverpool. I had a big security inspection at work. It was very stressful as we were grilled on a number of issues regarding our policies and procedures and also our infrastructure design itself. We did well overall though and have a good direction moving forward. We also did secret Santa and I got four cans of XXXX. Yay! My secret Santa knows me well. Before that was work, work, and more work, broken up by some really great times with Nikkie. We went to see the St. Petersburg Ballet perform The Nutcracker at the royal theatre in Nottingham. It was outstanding and my appreciation of it was greatly increased my watching the effect it had on Nikkie. She loves ballet, so did it for more than ten years herself, and her enthusiasm is infectious. I almost forgot! She has been offered an internship at the London Royal Ballet School to do physiotherapy over the summer! It’s a fantastic opportunity and I think she is really going to love it. Nikkie and I are driving back up to Liverpool tomorrow, where we are going to spend New Years Eve. There have been a lot of demands on our time this Christmas from our family and friends, and we decided that we wanted to have some time to ourselves, just to be with each other. So we are having a quiet, romantic New Years Eve; I am going to cook a wonderful three course dinner, we are going to have a lot of wine, then maybe go for a walk all rugged up alone the beach and then come home to the warmth to maybe play chess and chat and enjoy welcoming the new year in together. So 2005! Well what a year it has been. More things have changed in my life this year than any other year before. I found myself a terrific job. I found myself a wonderful girlfriend (though I rather think that she found me). I cemented my decision to live in the UK. I’ve had three different visas. I’ve left and entered the UK twice to get my visa status sorted. I’ve been home to Australia. I’ve seen my mother and brothers and all my family and friends. I’ve been promoted… Twice! I’ve gotten a raise. I’ve gotten a car and a flat. I’ve bought new clothes, and a new computer. I’ve completely changed my job direction and description. I’m now security cleared, and I’m working for the MOD! I’ve being going out with a beautiful, fabulous, wonderful girl for almost a year now. I am utterly, completely, 100% head over heels in love with a girl for the first time in my life. It’s an amazing feeling and had helped make this year the best year of my life. I am really happy and I can’t wait for new year to begin!

The Twelfth Month

General It has been a very long time since I last wrote a proper for Genesisdreams. Things have been racing along at a fantastic pace and I’ve been struggling to keep up with it all. That may seem a common trend of late in my entries, but it has been more prominent of late. We are entering the last month of 2005! This year has absolutely flown by; I hadn’t even finished Uni at the beginning of the year, and now look where I am! I would like to write that I have been doing something other than working long hours and putting in hard work, but I can’t. That’s my life, and has been for the past four months. It isn’t likely to change for the next four months either. I accept that. I just wish it was more interesting to write about :) So let’s leave work, Christmas is approaching! I’ve already started organising presents for Nikkie. I am going to completely spoil her. She loves Christmas, she is such a little kid when it comes to discussing it, and I want to make this an absolutely wonderful Christmas for her. I’ll be spending Christmas day down in London with her family, and though it will be sad to be away from my Mum and brothers, I know I’ll have fun. Nikkie’s dragging me to the gym tomorrow, I’ve got my trainers packed and I’m ready to go. She says that she has developed a full physiotherapy treatment regime designed to help my flexibility. We will see how it goes. I’m doing my best to get fit, and not be such a lazy man anymore. The guy who is doing my kitchen had a go at me the other day because of all the crap food I am eating! Anyway, I'll try to write more often, but I that's all I can promise to do.

Downtime

General - Music - Quotes Genesisdreams has been has been having some technical difficulties recently. Please don't worry if you tried to access the site over the past couple of weeks and found that you couldn't get here. The site is not down and out for good, and I'll do my best to start writing entries more often as well! Now becuase the site looks weird with only one small entry, I am going to post some song lyrics that I like.

Ground control to Major Tom Ground control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on
Ground control to Major Tom
Commencing countdown engine's on
Check ig-nition and may God's love be with you
David Bowie - Ground Control To Major Tom Today was gonna be the day? But they’ll never throw it back to you By now you should’ve somehow Realised what you’re not to do I don’t believe that anybody Feels the way I do About you now Oasis - Wonderwall Hey you, out there in the cold Getting lonely, getting old Can you feel me? Hey you, standing in the aisles With itchy feet and fading smiles Can you feel me? Hey you, don’t help them to bury the light Don’t give in without a fight. Pink Floyd - Hey You And it’s whispered that soon If we all call the tune Then the piper will lead us to reason. And a new day will dawn For those who stand long And the forests will echo with laughter. Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven It’s coming round again The slowly creeping hand Of time and it’s command Soon enough it comes And settles in it’s place Its shadow in my face Puts pressure in my day Powderfinger - These Days Well your faith was strong but you needed proof You saw her bathing on the roof Her beauty and the moonlight overthrough ya She tied you to her kitchen chair She broke your throne and she cut your hair And from your lips she drew the hallelujah Heff Buckley - Hallelujah I used to be a little boy So old in my shoes And what I choose is my choice What’s a boy supposed to do? The killer in me is the killer in you My love I send this smile over to you The Smashing Pumpkins - Disarm

Random Stuff

General It’s Friday night, and I’m on the train down from Liverpool to Nottingham. It’s been busy at work again, so this is the first time I’ve been able to take some time and write about what’s been going on in my life. The project we are working on is moving from the Site Survey and Design Phase to the Implementation Phase, which means big changes in the way we are currently doing things. Everyone is rushing to get ready and so things are very hectic. I don’t want to talk about work though. I always talk about work. I’m passing through Manchester at the moment. It’s such a beautiful city. The train is elevated and the view of the cityscape from its windows is wonderful. We pass through some truly gorgeous English countryside between Manchester and Sheffield. Sometimes I can pass hours simply staring out the window and watching it all fly by. It’s getting cold. The clocks switched back an hour last Saturday night, it gets less sunny every day. I’m constantly wearing coats and jackets. It’s almost time to pull my gloves and scarf out. I read in the paper that this year we are going to have one of the coldest winters in history. Crap. The only bright side is that it may snow heavily over Christmas. I would love to have a truly white Christmas, to build snowmen and have snow ball fights. To cuddle up in front of the fire and eat brandy covered cakes. Ok so maybe it being cold this winter isn’t such a bad thing after all. I got paid today! My nice fat payslip is sitting in my pocket. Money is a strange thing. I’ve got more of it now than I’ve ever had before, and it’s changing my perception of things. It is to be expected I guess. My standards are rising. I can afford better clothes now, better food, and better wine. My tastes are becoming more refined. I can afford better quality things, and so now I’m beginning to not settle for lesser quality things anymore. I guess ignorance really is bliss, because before I wouldn’t have dreamed on spending lots of money of a good bottle of wine, but then before I didn’t know any better. God I must sound like such a snob. That’s really not the case though. I’m saving my money; I put almost all of it away. I think long term when it comes to money. The only debt I have is my student loan. I’ve got no overdraft, no credit card bill. I am not spending lots of money now on assets that will only depreciate with time, I’d rather put that money away so it increases with time instead of decreases. My standard of living may have increased a since I started earning a decent wage, but I’m still essentially living a student lifestyle. I don’t know why I decided to write about that. I’m all over the place at the moment. I’ve got so many things running around my head I’m struggling to keep track of them all. I had a big meeting down in Telford on Wednesday. Once the day was over we all went out for dinner and then got very drunk. Thankfully we were crashing in the hotel that night and didn’t have to return to Liverpool until the next day. The Regional Project Managers are all based in Telford, and they have been living in that hotel for almost four months now. The go home for the weekends to see their wives and children, but during the week they camp out in the hotel and do their work. It must be a very strange life. They have all gotten to know the hotel staff very well, particularly the bar staff. My mind is wandering again. I’m almost at Nottingham. I’ve been writing this on and off for more than two hours now. I can’t want to see Nikkie. I miss her so much. I had to work last weekend and so didn’t get a chance to see her. I can’t remember us being apart for this long since last Christmas!! I’m staying down in Nottingham through till Monday, so I’ll have plenty of time to spend with her this weekend. We haven’t got anything in particular planned. Most of all I just want to sit with her, to talk with her, to look at her. It’s really scary how much I love this girl. I’ve got a spare battery now for my laptop, so I can get about 4 hours of usage out of it now. Half way through I just shut down, whip out the dead battery and replace it with the spare charged one. It makes a really big difference being able to work for that long. I’m almost lost without my laptop now. Well we are almost there, so I had better wind this up. I’ve got to pack up all my stuff and get ready to jump off the train and into the arms of my beloved. Take care everyone, I’m thinking of you. M

Quick Update

General It’s Sunday night and I’m on the train from Nottingham back up to Liverpool. I haven’t got much battery left on my laptop so I’ll have to make this a quick update. It’s been a busy week. I’ve been down to Nottingham and back three times in the last 9 days! Work is going well. Nikkie and I are great. The weather is getting colder. It’s my mum’s birthday tomorrow; Happy Birthday Mum!! I’ve got a bit of a cold. I’ve just opened a new bank account. I bought a new winter coat. We had lunch out with the old Church Avenue gang yesterday plus their new housemate Kirsty. I was supposed to go into the office today but didn’t. I’m going to take some time off over Christmas to spend with Nikkie and her family. Opps powering down!!

TrainBlog

General - Personal - Personal I am on the train once more. Perhaps I should rename this blog from Genesisdreams to TrainLog, or RailJournal or something like that because that’s what it is becoming. I’ve got Star Guitar blazing from my earphones as I type this. The quaint English country side whizzing by in time with the beats. I’m hyped up on one too many train trolley lattes and am in the mood to write! I had the most wonderful weekend. On Friday night Nikkie and I met up with all of our friends at bar BZR. After one too many triple vodka and oranges we made our way down to Ocean, our usual Friday night clubbing haunt, and managed to get in without tickets and without too much queuing! They had redone the place somewhat, but they still played the same old cheesey music. It was great! I had forgotten how much I enjoyed clubbing, both Nikkie and I really needed a good long dance. Saturday we did some more stuff, went out for dinner, watched the OC season 3 and the first two episodes of Lost season 2. Sunday we did more stuff, then I got on the train home. I don’t really feel like writing a full account of that stuff now. It was such a wonderful weekend I don’t really want to write about it in detail. I’d like to keep a lot of it for just Nikkie and I. Still I am in the mood to write. I’ve talked about work, university, travel, friends, books, music, and movies in my blog before. I’ve talked about my love life. I’ve talked about my hopes and fears. I’ve talked about my dreams. This blog is called Genesisdreams. I started it more than two years ago now with the intention of providing a link to my family and friends back home. At that that point I was only planning on coming to the UK for a year, on exchange for University. This blog was designed to help me keep in touch with those I left behind back home. Over the years though its purpose has changed somewhat. It now represents to me a record of a new beginning. It’s a history of the beginning of my dreams. I didn’t really know where my place was until recently, I was unsure about my future, about what I wanted to do, where I wanted to be, who I wanted to spend it with. I had ambitions, I had hopes, and I had plans. I had dreams. Dreams about where I wanted my life to go, about what I wanted to achieve with it. Through this blog I hope I’ve allowed you to witness the genesis of these dreams. Reading back over my entries I think you can follow a definite sense of purpose, of direction, leading me to a turning point. We all have a road to walk down, and we face forks in that road every day of our lives. Occasionally though we come to a junction from which there is no turning back. If you take the wrong path you can’t simple retrace your steps and take the other once. Our decisions shape our lives, and I think that looking back over this blog you can see what the major decisions were that I faced, and what helped lead my to my final choices. Go down the wrong path and your dream ends, how down the right one, and it’s only the beginning. Written while listening to Chemical Brothers – Star Guitar

I'm Alright

Friends - General I was shocked by the terror attacks that occured today in London. I was safe up in Liverpool away from all the danger. Thanks to everyone who texted/rang/emailed me to make sure I was alright. I really appreciate the thought.

Happy Easter!

General Happy Easter everyone! I almost forgot it was happening this year. In fact I haven't had any chocolate at all so far today! We will remedy that tonight! ^_^ The clocks also went forward an hour today, which I had no idea about either. That's an extra hour of sleep that was robbed from me! I've been forgetting a lot of things recently. Too caught up in other stuff I guess. I hope everyone, all my family and friends around the world, have a fantastic holiday.

Abandoned, Alone, Happy!

Friends - General So one by one my friends are abandoning me. Graeme left to go back up to Liverpool a couple of weeks ago. He is changing courses and so is repeating his second year. That being the case he didn't see much point in showing up to the rest of the lectured he had this term. Nikkie moved out more than a week ago now, and the last of her stuff is finally gone. The house seems really cold and empty without her. Bruce got the train up to Edinburgh on Friday. It’s Easter holidays and he is going home, first to Scotland, and then over to Dubai. He wont be back till the 17th of April, when he will be down "taking part" (or watching as I prefer to call it) in the London Marathon. Viki left on Saturday. She was getting the train all the way over to Cardiff, where she was going to spend the night (and celebrate Wales' Six Nations Grand Slam Victory!!) before heading home for a couple of weeks. Ben left on Saturday as well, up to Liverpool to party and sit off at home for a whole month before having to come back here for the start of next term. Ads leaves tomorrow. He is flying up to Edinburgh to meet up with Bruce for a bit and then travel around Scotland. He's been here for three and a half weeks now, and it has been great seeing him again and hanging out. I must admit I've been a bit of a poor host. I've been spending almost every free moment with Nikkie lately, and so Ads has had lots of days and nights sitting off with the rest of my housemates watching DVDs or reading books. Sorry about that mate. So that leaves me. Alone. Abandoned. In this big old house, all by myself. The good new is that Nikkie has another week of lectures before her Easter holidays start, and isn't planning on going home until April anyway (and she has invited me down then as well!) so that means that I probably wont be so alone in this big old house. In fact I doubt I'll be by myself very much at all for the next couple of weeks. We are going to make the most of this time together, while I'm down here, before I have to move away. We are going to have some quality time coming up, totally for each other, without having to worry about other friends, or work, or study, or anything else at all. I can't wait. Written while listening to Alex Lloyd - Amazing.

Absence Explained

General Well I realised that because I haven't posted in so long, all my other entries have been removed from my front page, and now it looks ugly, so I need to add some filler. Feel lucky people because all I can think of to fill the gaps is to write a post... filling in the gaps of the last couple of weeks. So without further ado, and in no particular order, here are some exciting, and not so exciting things that have happened:

• I’ve been drunk multiple times (well duh!).
• I’ve been ill with a sort throat.
• I still haven’t started looking for a job, but I’ve been offered two.
• Nikkie has found another house and is moving out.
• I’ve been ill with flu like symptoms.
• Ads showed up!
• Valentines Day was actually pretty good this year.
• I went out to Ocean while still ill, but had a great time.
• I didn’t go out to Tantra while still ill, but still had a good time.
• I’ve given up unhealthy food for Lent (Nikkie forced me).
• I got my Uni results back and absolutely owned everything.
• I topped my Computer Security subject even having done the exam drunk.
• I took the legs off my bed and am now effectively sleeping on the floor.
• I’ve read more books that I care to recall.
• I’ve watched more TV that I care to recall. The OC and 24 still rock.
• I ran out of shaving cream and so had a scruffy beard for a while.

Ok that's all I can think of right now. Be content with it ^_^

Care Package II

General I received another care package in the mail today. This one was from my Mum. It was an early birthday present that contained a bunch of socks and boxer shorts (typical mum presents) plus a Victoria Bitter stubby holder (great novelty value), a pretty cool T-Shirt, and a full pack of 500 playing cards, including 11's, 12's and 13's. You can't get 500 cards here, and I really want to play with all my housemates, so they were perhaps the best part of the present. Thanks mum!

Happy Australia Day!

General - Music - Personal - Quotes

On January 26, 1788 Captain Arthur Phillip took formal possession of the colony of New South Wales and became its first Governor. The fledging colony soon began to celebrate the anniversary of this date. Manning Clarke notes that in 1808 the "anniversary of the foundation of the colony" was observed in the traditional manner with "drinking and merriment" (Source).

Drinking and merriment! That sounds about right to me. We Australian's like our booze. Today is National Australia Day, the day we celebrate the first steps towards the creation of our fine nation (even though we only actually achieved federation in 1901). As I'm writing this the day in full swing over in Australia itself. I got a phone call from Fragma at 2am his time, where only two hours into Australia day he was pissed as a fart and partying hard. Just the way to do it I think. The traditional way to celebrate Australia Day for me has been to hang out at someone's house, with numerous cartons of beer, or kegs if someone has been organised enough to get them, and drink the day away, cooking meat on the BBQ and listening to Triple J's hottest 100 on the radio. I really miss that. I'm not usually very patriotic, I'm certainly not as jingoistic as a lot of people I met while travelling around. I am proud to be Australian though. I would never try to pretend I’m from somewhere else, and I dislike it incredibly when people mistake me for a South African or New Zealander. We antipodeans share a common bond, but we’re not that alike! I often miss my sunburnt land, and wouldn’t have wanted to be born anywhere else. I like Australian’s on a whole, we are an extremely friendly bunch, honest, hard working, and laid back. We enjoy what our country has to offer us, the weather, the sun, the sand. We love our sports, our drink, our women ^_^ I’ve decided to stay over here in the UK. I don’t have any plans to return back to Australia any time soon. This doesn’t mean I don’t love my country; it’s just that sometimes you are drawn away. I know where my home is. Written while listening to Peter Allen's I Still Call Australia Home. I think the following verse is particularly apt. I'm always travelin' And I love bein' free So I keep leavin' the sun and the sea But my heart lies waiting over the foam I still call Australia home.

First Snow

Friends - Fun - General It's snowing in Nottingham! I was walking back from Uni this afternoon and it started to rain, then it stopped raining and started to snow! Eventually the snow was think on the tops of all the cars, and Nikkie, Viki and I had a big snow ball fight. I must admit that I was a snow ball virgin, but I held my own, and it was great fun. It was freezing cold, and we were running up and down the street like lunatics, but I wouldn't have traded it for anything. We were acting like children, making heaps of noise, and people kept looking out of their windows at us, but still, it was fantastic. I want to do it again. I am not looking forward to the cold of this England winter and this early snow fall doesn't bode well for a mild season. However if I would like a white Christmas, I would like to walk through the streets of London in the snow, and I would like to have more snow ball fights! So I will bare with it ^_^ Listening to Shimmer by Fuel.

All The Leaves Are Brown

General And the sky is grey… I am experiencing my first real Autumn! The leaves are actually falling off the trees! The weather is noticeably changing! It’s a strange experience for an Australian (particularly for a Queenslander). I lived in a land full of evergreen trees, where the climate is generally always hot, and the daylight hours stay fairly consistent year round. Here there is a dramatic difference between the summer that was, and the winter that is coming. It’s called autumn and I love it! The streets are paved with a brown carpet of leaves. It’s dark when we go out of night now. Plus it is getting very very cold! I dislike the temperature change, but the rest is absolutely gorgeous. It’s funny the differences you notice, and the ones you don’t.

How To Travel With A Salmon

Books - General - Metaposts - Music I have been really slack in updating lately. Sorry about that everyone. I have had to time to update, I've just been doing so much recently that I haven't had the energy to sit down and write all about it. I will catch up soon. I will be moving into my new place in a week, so if I don't post a big Fringe Festival and after review before then, it will likely be a couple more weeks before I get the net hooked up and everything organised for me to post properly again. I will get around to replying to all the emails I have been sent too... Sometime ^_^ Oh yeah, I'm reading some Umberto Eco and listening to lots of Faithless.

Sunset

General It's almost 9:30pm here right now, and the sun has just set. It's so different to back home.

Incomplete Story

General I realise that I missed a bit of my initial story, in particular my first weekend in Nottingham, however it has been too long now since the actual events to write a full comprehensive tale about it. So I'll very quickly summarise. I awoke Saturday morning feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. I went downstairs to have some coffee and toast, and while I was eating, Jessica and Emily overcame their fear of me and jumped simultaneously on my lap. They started tickling me (I am incredibly ticklish) and so a tickle fight ensued. After being completely tired out by two kids who have enough energy to power the north side of Brisbane, I started packing and got read to venture forth to Nottingham! I arrived at John's place with one bag. My second (lost) bag arrived the next day. When I left John's for Nottingham I had the following extra items:

• A Samsung A300e mobile phone (email me if you want the number). I never had a mobile back home (to the annoyance of some of my friends), but within two days of my arrival I got one.
• A PII 333 computer. It's slow, but it meant I could get on the net quickly.
• A nineteen inch monitor (see guys, I had to come to the other side of the world to get a decent sized monitor).
• An Epson Stylus Color 740 printer.
• A CD player. I haven't used this much as I brought a whole bunch of mp3 CDs with me.
• A subwoofer and speakers, which are hooked up to my computer
• A hot water bottle, which I had to be shown how to use (yes there is a trick to it!).
• A kettle, which I later found out we weren't allowed to use in our rooms.
• Assorted other bits and pieces, cloths, power boards, etc.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, my cousin John is such a legend. So anyway Jackie was taking the kids up to see her parents for the weekend, so John and I drove down alone to Nottingham. It was a pleasant drive and we made good time until we got to Nottingham itself. The place is a maze of one-way streets! We eventually found a park and walked along to the Lace Market Hotel, where we were booked in for the night. We met Simone in the Cock and Hoop, the bar next to the hotel and had a few drinks before checking in. It was good to see Simone again, and we had a lot of catching up to do, even though I had seen her less than half a year ago when she came across to Australia for her honeymoon. That afternoon and night went by like a whirlwind, we went out to the Quilted Lama, but they couldn't make good Bloody Mary's so we went to the Living Room, where they could. Then we went to Wagamama for some noodles but it was packed full of people, then we wandered around a bit, and then I woke up the next morning. Interesting night. So after checking out of the hotel we made our way to the University. We went to University Park first (which is the main campus) and then tried to find our way over to Jubilee Campus (which is five minutes away). We got here, found my hall, I signed a few forms, paid a bit of money (key and damage deposits) and then I went to move into my room. I'll write another entry soon (during a boring period... whenever that will be) about what my room is like, but for now lets just say I moved in, unpacked a few things, said goodbye to John and Simone, and then fell promptly asleep. And that's the story of my arrival in Nottingham.

Address

General If anyone wants to send me something over the coming semester (post cards, money, Red Cross care packages) address your correspondence to:

Newark Hall
The University of Nottingham
Jubilee Campus
Wollaton Road
Nottingham NG8 1BB

Voting

General My friends inform me that I'm supposed to vote in the state election today (well Saturday, today their time). Of course I can't, because I'm not there. I just hope they don't fine me. I'm on IRC now, which is the way in which I always kept in touch with my friends back home. It's strange now though because there is such a time difference. It's like it was before, but slightly different. It's good though because we can chat like we always used to do. I'm just annoyed it took so long to get hooked up. Even though I've been really busy here recently, there were a number of times when I felt lonely and I really wanted to just get on the computer and chat with my friends.

Second Day

General I awoke in a strange (but incredibly comfy) bed. I’d slept for about 12 hours and was feeling pretty good by this stage. I went downstairs, with crazy morning hair, bits sticking up and out everywhere, and encountered Jessica and Emily, John’s two little girls. They were four and three respectively and they were quite freaked out by my appearance. Jackie made me a cup of coffee and I had some vegemite on toast (Aunty Marge and Uncle Eddie were over here from Australia for Christmas, so they brought a whole lot of it with them, even though you can buy it in the stores here). The plan for the day was quite laid back, we were going shopping in order to get me all the warm clothes I needed (I brought practically none with me), but we also had to wait around for the courier to arrive with my other bag (it had arrived from wherever it was last night). I gave the courier place a call and they could only tell me ”Sometime in the afternoon” but thankfully they came just after midday so then we proceeded to go shopping! I got a big winter coat (with fur on the hood, which Jackie said was really “trendy”), some gloves a scarf and a couple of jumpers. John bought them all for me saying it was an early birthday present (he is such a legend). We wandered around for a bit more looking at stuff. Cut to that night, John and Jackie’s from Joe (Aunty Joe-Joe) arrived in a cab and we all went to a pub called Brass Monkey in Liverpool. It’s a place where all of John’s work mates go on a Friday (John’s a partner of a big law firm in Liverpool, so most of the guys there actually worked for him). Anyway I had some pints of Foster’s, played a heap of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” on this little arcade cabinet/ pokie-machine thing, where if you get all the questions right and win the million you get twenty quid. All of the young guys were standing around playing it, and we got pretty far a couple of times, winning a couple of quid back. I was hopeless at half of it though, because many of the questions were like “Which Arsenal player…” or “In which county is…”. All of the British-centric questions threw me completely. The pub atmosphere was pretty much like it is back home, just with a whole lot more people wearing jumpers and coats. I had a whole lot of pints of larger, and a few of bitter, but it really isn’t my cup of tea. At about eleven we left to go to this place called Stop, because there was a live band playing, and Joe fancied the lead singer. Joe, John, Jackie, a guy called Fuzzy and I got a cab there, and it was pretty crowed when we arrived. The band had just started playing their set, so we went to get some drinks leaving Joe to sit right up the front next to the singer. We spent a couple of hours in this place, the music was good and the drinks were cheap. One thing that I couldn’t get over was how little the girls all wore. It was freezing cold, but most of them had extremely short skirts, and tiny little tops with not jacket. Totally nuts. Eventually we got a cab back home; minus Joe (she thought her chances were good with the lead singer). We got out at this fish and chips place where John and Fuzzy ordered kebabs. After inspecting the meat Jackie and I thought better of it, so we walked down to the Chinese place and ordered some food there, and then walked home across the street to wait for it to be cooked. Once we got all our food we sat around talking and drinking and eating until the small hours of the morning, when we all finally decided to crash for the night (I was in the spare bed, Fuzzy slept on the couch). And so ended my second day in England.

Home

General Oh yeah I forgot. I'm back 'home' now. Got the train back from Liverpool this morning.

Merry Christmas

General I'm heading up the coast in a couple of hours for Christmas and Boxing Day. I was going to write a big story about all of our family Christmas lunches over the years, and how it has changed now, and why... but I wont, becuase I'm sure it's 35 degrees C out at the moment and I'm melting in the heat. I've barely had the energy to pack and wrap presents. So to everyone, have a very Merry Christmas!

We're all going to die!

General [nashdj ] wha [nashdj ] aparantly an asteroid has been found heading for earth [nashdj ] ~800 years away [nashdj ] first i've heard of it [rurouni ] kewl [rurouni ] will kill earth? :D [Wulfen ] well I will be nice and boney by then [rurouni ] boney! Well ok so we are all going to die... someday.

Motivations

General - Metaposts - Travel In 15 days I leave for Japan to spend four weeks backpacking around with my friends, squandering all my money on sake, and generally trying to forget that I am half way through writing an engineering honours thesis that I don't know will ever be finished. In six months I am heading to England, to the University of Nottingham, to finish my fifth and final year of tertiary study as an exchange student. Eventually this blog will become one of the most important links I will have to all the family and friends I will leave over here. At the moment though I'm simply aiming on getting used to posting entries often, I've never kept a journal before, so my first few posts will likely be quite erratic. Hopefully I'll get the hang of it, so when I do go away you guys can keep up to date with what's going on, any maybe not miss me quite so much (that's you especially mum).