JamesX

2006! Happy New Year!

It’s time once again to look back upon the year that was 2005…

January
Work started early on in January in preperation for the new school year and it wasn’t long before the heatwave hit Melbourne. January saw the least blogging by people and it was time for me to rant about it. It was also the month when I finally managed to get my eBay blue star, we celebrated Marc’s 20th birthday, and that horrible deer roadkill was unleashed upon the world. We continued to slug through the mountain of boxes at work and it’s also the same week that the RodentJet was born.

February
By February, uni was starting to appear on my radar and the timetabling gods seemed to be on my side. Either way, it didn’t phase me much as before long, the great South Pacific adventure had begun. It was one of the best, if not the best, holiday I’ve been on and by the end of it, I had taken almost 1,100 photos! The AFL footy tipping season was about to begin, Richard finally cracked the RMIT wireless problem and a new game was on the horizon…

March
Yes March is where it all began, World of Warcraft was taking centre stage at it began to occupy more than a little of everyone’s time. Our family friend Jean was over from England visiting and in between all of this, work and uni were plodding along nicely. As if it wasn’t already enough, No Worries, the latest play at work was a huge success.

April
It was a time for new things when April came around the picotux, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, the list of 200 things, “never have I ever”, and the release of Tiger (although I didn’t get it until later) were enough to keep me busy. I also got to celebrate Oscar’s birthday and I uncovered the mystery behind the Graphinc Calculator application.

May
May Day was when Tiger arrived on my Powerbook and brought with it a host of new features to help convert those who still believe Windows is a better OS. Hitchhikers hit the movies, and a day later it was Andrew’s birthday. Then came Remember Ronald Ryan and the fifth season of Big Brother began in earnest. It was also the time to launch the new backend on the site. It would still be some time before it all tied together, but having grandma away for 7 weeks was sure to help.

June
It was semester one exam season around the time that my relations were visiting from England. I took them to the football and showed them around Melbourne - including Phillip Island. June was also the month that GigManX was born. It had been a long while since my last gadget purchase and it was time for something new. FOXTEL iQ entered the household and it hasn’t stopped recording since! Exams were over and reports were printed just in time to finish the month with dinner at Han’s.

So that’s the first half of 2005. The second half can be found in Part 2.

It was another large gathering at my house this year for the annual Boxing Day party. Dropping the traditional Christmas turkey and ham, I opted for the Australian BBQ as a theme for the party. It was a great afternoon that ran long into the night as the drinking increased. :)

One of the highlights of the day was the Texas Hold’em poker tournament that saw eight hopeful winners pitted against one another. The overall winner was Lisa, who has an excellent poker face let me add! I challenged her by risking most of my chips on an Ace 10 hand with a pair of Aces. A fairly strong hand to be betting with, but she had an Ace King and took my money from me. From then it was all over for me and I came in fourth. Steve was third, and Chris second. It was a fun game, and I don’t mind losing money when I know I can make it back later! Lisa, that $80 is mine!!

As Boxing Day goes on hold for another year, I’m heading up to Bright for a few days to get away for a while.

I don’t know what it is this year but Christmas seems to have snuck up on me. Usually I’m all into the Christmas spirit and decorating like crazy but I’ve been so busy, I’ve only really just got around to it. The tree was put up only four days ago but the house is starting to look a little festive once again! Nevertheless, the blog has also undergone it’s Christmas surgery even if there’s only one day to go!

Thankfully I’ve finally got all the Christmas shopping done so now all I have to do is get cleaning the house ready for my big Boxing Day party. It’s yet another annual event I seem to hold. I don’t know why I punish myself organising these things, but getting everyone together makes it all worthwhile. Hopefully I can win the poker tournament this year. No doubt the practice I’ve had over the past month will proove invaluable!

Merry Christmas to all. I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow!

Last Saturday night - it’s taken 2 days to recover! - was the big 21st birthday party. A large gathering of my friends and relatives assembled at Red Terrace in Melbourne to celebrate the occasion. There was plenty of nibbles, drinks and party atmosphere to go around - including plenty of embarrassing photos of me as a youngster! The party finished at 1am and we moved on to Fitzroy Street to continue to party the night away. After finding it far to busy there, we moved to Toorak Road and the Lotus Bar before finishing the night (or should I say morning) in a cocktail lounge overlooking the fights and drunk people stumbling around getting taxis!

All in all it was a great night. Thanks to Addo for being the photographer for the night - a selection of photos is in the gallery for you all to see! (You’ll need to login for them to be visible)

I also need to congratulate Dean and Deborah on their wedding which took place on Saturday. It seems Saturday was a special occasion for many people. All the best! Enjoy next week.

Today is my 21st birthday! Happy birthday to me. Everyone can bow down and worship my greatness… just kidding!

To celebrate this grand event I went out with the family to The Mandarin, a Chinese restaurant in Hampton. It was a great night and the food was awesome - I love Chinese! I’ve got some photos of the night which I’ll be uploading to the gallery shortly… when I get them off the camera!

On the last day of the four day racing carnival, Emirates Stakes Day, dad invited Penelope, Ed, Marc and I along to spend the day gambling!! In typical Panther style, dad had to out do everybody and get tickets to the Chairman’s Club. If you’ve been to Flemington before, it’s the big glass dining area on the third floor of the grandstand. I have to say, I was very impressed. I mean who wouldn’t be when you have your own personal waiter, a dining table with an unobstructed view of the track, a TV screen on the table and your own betting area, lounge and cigar room. I used the opportunity to drag the camera back into service so head over to the gallery to check out the photos.

By the end of the day, we were tired, but not finished and I was at the point where I’d consumed enough alcohol that I could go on all night. So naturally, we ended up at Crown. Although after having a full three course meal at the races really filled me up, I still managed to squeeze in a club sandwich and chips. I also made it my mission to work through the cocktail list… we got about three quarters of the way through before calling it a night.

Pity I didn’t get to make it to Dean’s bucks night but I had a great day.