JamesX

I forgot to make an entry about my latest header pic when I uploaded it a few days ago so I thought I had better include one. The photo is unedited and almost got thrown out for being blurry (I took it while the car was speeding down Mt Hotham) but then I thought it was perfect for the blog.

This trip was one of the hottest with the temperature soaring into the mid 40s. It was a good opportunity to take lots of photos with the new camera though. I still have a lot of learning to go with that thing, but it’s good to be able to relate some of the features with practical, real-life examples.

Being up in the hills only makes me long for the winter ski season to begin!

When there’s snow and there’s sun it can mean only one thing - it’s Spring. Seeing as though the Perisher Trip was cancelled this year, I found myself with a week off work with nowhere to go. So we rallied up the troops and Richard, Dean, Brent, Jarrod and I took to the countryside for a week of, well, whatever really. You see one thing that Perisher has over Hotham is that it has snow at this time of year and, well, you kinda need the snow if you want to go skiing. That being said, there was still plenty of things to keep us occupied around the town. We even watched Rich try to rip the bumper off his Forrester towing a log up the hill.

I somehow managed to mention Geocaching to Dean in passing and it turns out he was more excited by it than I am so we spent the whole next day trekking around the parkland surrounding the town looking for caches. Maybe it wasn’t the thrill of the hunt, but more the thrill of the drive when we’re going rally style in the WRX. I’m pleased to say we found five in one day - a record! The guys were so keen, we even decided to hide our own cache up on the hill behind the house. It’s full of surprises so you should go find it one day if you’re in the area. :)

On the last night we ended up in the pub (I know, how typical) and it was there that I was introduced into Buck Hunter (at least I think that’s what it’s called). What a random game. I suppose it’s a very pub game. The whole object is to shoot at a specific animal on the screen while all these other ones run around. It’s kinda the modern Duck Hunt, only it’s more fun. I’m hoping Dean decides to get one in the office at work. That way he can practice up so that I don’t kick his arse so badly next time. ;)

That being said, it was a fun week. Except maybe the cops on the way home… but hey, that’s another story.

You can tell a production is on when everyone seems to go under the radar for a while and that’s certainly the case with me right now. There’s so much going on with work, and my other work, that there really isn’t time for too much else. Seeing as though it’s been about two weeks since my last update, I thought it best to make some semblance of an entry before things get even more busy!

Last week was my brother’s birthday. He turned 19 this year and I think he might actually be showing signs of growing up! I suppose as the older brother I might be slightly biased in that regard, but it’s good that he’s doing well and we had a nice family dinner to celebrate the occasion.

Last weekend I also made it up to Bright again. I seem to be getting up there more and more often lately and that’s because it’s the only place I can really be where I’m not being interrupted by everyone and, can actually, truly relax. I’m still not quite at the point where the people in the town don’t look you over and think “city boy” every time you walk down the street, but I’m working on it! My bogan acting skills still need some tuning…

What else, what else? Last night was the finale for Big Brother 2007. I know most of you are probably saying “thank god that’s over,” but I think that the show did reasonably well this year. That is of course if you don’t look at how absolutely terrible last night’s show was. It was a true example of how not to do live television - although ironically, that was what made it all the more intriguing. Even so, taking 4 hours to reveal the winner when you could get your act together and do it in 4 minutes still has me a little bewildered. How a computer “needs time to count the votes,” to quote Gretel, is well beyond me. It’s obviously beyond Beyond too and perhaps next year they might do it a little differently. I can’t help but think that something very fishy went on behind the scenes last night but I guess we’ll never know!

And finally, as always, I’ll shamelessly plug the upcoming production of the musical, FAME. It’s happening in mid-August and if you’re free you should come along. Seeing as though every man and his dog (literally, although cat in my case) are on Facebook nowadays, naturally you can get all the info on there. It’s shaping up to be a great show.

Anyway, that’s all for now. Time to go tend the animals. (If you’re as obsessed as me, that might even be funny!)

I’ve just uploaded some photos from the Bright trip. The one above is a photo of the trees alongside the Great Alpine Road on the way up Mount Hotham. It was really beautiful terrain and driving up each day, seeing the transition from a normal sunny day, to the foggy, snow-capped mountains was breathtaking. It makes me wonder what it would be like if it would snow in Melbourne. In any case, you can have a look for yourself in the gallery.

I’ve been neglecting the blog a little lately and it’s mainly because I haven’t been around to make a post. One of the good things about finishing uni is that I actually have time again to get out and catch up with everyone. Combine that with school holidays, and there’s plenty of time to do… well…. less. :)

Since I wont have to talk about uni so much now, I might as well recap what happened last week. The final capstone presentation went really well - in fact, one of the lecturers said we were one of the best groups. It was good to finish on such a positive, and even though I wont have results for another couple of weeks, I’m confident that I should get a pretty good score. We all went out for dinner after class and ended up in Chinatown. Luck would have it that about ten minutes after a conversation about John So, he walked into the restaurant and sat at the table next to us! That’s the second time we’ve randomly crossed paths as the result of a rather eerie coincidence.

The other exciting event coming up is the long awaited Bright trip. The cold weather and rain have produced excellent snowfalls with 27cm falling at Hotham in the last 24 hours. It’s going to be a great trip with 13 people coming along to join in the fun (at last count!). It’ll be good to have a break from work and get away from it all for a while. I’m quietly hoping that The Orchard will be open this year and if the snow keeps up, it’s looking like a chance - it’s easily the best part of the mountain, but since the season was so bad last year it didn’t open at all.

All we need now is for water restrictions to go away!

It’s been over a month, so it’s time for a new picture (don’t want the Sydney-siders getting too big headed!). This one was taken on my last trip Bright and despite what you may think is not Photoshopped! It was snapped near the town, down along the bank of the Ovens River. Not a bad shot at all and a bit of a change from the current weather around Melbourne.