Legacy

After a year living with Jarad and James in probably one of the best units of any of my friends (except maybe James and Sophie’s), we’ve been served with an eviction notice. That’s right, its over. We have 60 days left. Fortunately the eviction isn’t because we poured fanta all over the carpet or decided to draw all over the walls with texta. We are being given the notice because our lease is expiring in a week and a bit, and the owner’s daughter is apparently coming back from overseas and is going to move in. So now the hard work of inspections and moving and house warming parties begins. Jarad has seen a nice place already, and we went for a nice walk tonight to have a look at it and some of the real estate agents. It was good to get out and reminisce about good times and the work that now has to be done. I doubt we’ll find a place as good as this one. Maybe if it has a gas stove, dish washer, 2 toilets and builtins in every room it’ll come close.

and in just under 4 months my cholesterol has lowered to an acceptably healthy level. I can now enjoy a cheese and Thai again. The doctor seemed impressed that I had dropped 1.8mmol/L (from 6.6 to 4.8) in that period of time. I don’t know if that’s good or not, but I don’t think I’ll be dying of a heart attack anytime soon (hopefully there are no sudden ironic twists now I’ve written that)....

Apparently from the centre of Copenhagen. Questionable in terms of whether or not it actually took place, but very cool nevertheless.

I just got some spam that is in Russian, doesn’t include any links and, according to my translation widget, is advertising English lessons. Awesome. (read more for email body) ...

Since I am now past the 3 month mark since the start of my cholesterol induced diet I decided I’d visit the doctor and get my blood tested again. When he does these tests he always checks everything so he got me to stand on the scales to take my weight. I got a big surprise (so to speak). My weight was 78kg, with my shoes still on, a fat wallet still in my pocket and the scales reporting just above zero with nothing on them. I thought I was still around 82kg (having lost about 4 or 5 before that) and 3 months ago I was 84kg. I think what makes it a bigger deal is that I hadn’t done much exercise through January, and I haven’t been as strict on what I was eating. I don’t think I’ve been below 80 since the start of university. My reckoning is that by the end of this year, with all the travelling and what not going on, I’ll be in the low 70’s. Sweet.

I saw “Pan’s Labyrinth” last night with Stephen Shearsby in Newton. It is a fascinating movie and I would highly recommend it. For me the first surprise was that it was in Spanish and subtitled in English. I knew it was a Spanish film, but I kind of expected it to be dubbed into English. Nevertheless it gave me the chance to try and figure out what they were saying rather than reading the subtitles. Unfortunately my Spanish is not very good, so I only managed to really understand the greetings and the occasional word here or there. The story itself is about Ofelia, a young girl living during the Spanish civil war in 1944, who has just gone with her pregnant mother to live with her new stepfather. As a bloody fascist civil war is taking place around her, Ofelia retreats into her fairy tales. Guillermo del Toro does a fantastic job at making these fantasies real and juxtaposing them against the violence surrounding her. It looks so real in fact its hard to tell where or when he has hasn’t used special effects. The only bit I didn’t fancy was some of the violence. There are only a couple of scenes that made me a bit squeamish, but it was never over done. Actually the sounds of gunshots in the film were a strange experience. They weren’t the usual nice Hollywood gunshot sound, but they were loud and sharp and almost made you jump. Like the fairy tales the violence in Pan’s Labyrinth felt very real, much more confronting than a lot of other movies. Overall Pan’s Labyrinth is a great film. Possibly the best I’ve seen in the last 12 months. I’d most definitely watch it again at the cinema (anyone want to go?) and/or buy the DVD. You do the same. Oh yeah, visit imdb or rottentomatoes for more complete, well worded reviews.

You know how you sometimes put your hand into a pocket, or you look into a bag, and find a $20 note lying around. Well, as I was doing some budgeting for my upcoming trip, I decided to double check the actual money in my bank accounts. Up until now I had been making rough guesses as to how much money I had, and I was beginning to get worried that I might be sailing a bit too close to the wind (especially since I might be unemployed for 4 months)....

So this box containing a computer part (pictured in front) we ordered from umart arrived at work arrived yesterday. Its not fragile, yet it came in more packaging than a hard disk that arrived last week. The box could fit at least another 20 of them. Maybe there is a lack of appropriately sized boxes in Sydney at the moment...

es•ca•lope |ɪˌskaləp| |ɛ-| |-ˌskɒl-| |ˌɛskələʊp| noun a thin slice of meat without any bone, typically a special cut of veal from the leg that is coated, fried, and served in a sauce. Also called scallop. New Oxford American Dictionary

My new LCD monitor at work just arrived. I now have more desk space, more screen space and one less thing burning energy and cranking out heat in our office. Big LCD monitors rock :D