A bad day

Yesterday was not a good day.

Mum

This seems to have been sorted. After my email to Dad yesterday, I got another email from him saying:-

Ooops ! My reply to your "realisation" message was meant to be reasonably "Light Hearted"
"Buggerit"...I must have stuffed it up !

To which I replied:-

Oh Dad. It wasn't the text of your message which upset me, it was the idea that I'd upset Mum, and also, by upsetting her, had upset you. That was never my intention. I just don't want to talk to you guys right now because I've already spent most of the morning trying not to cry at work and I really don't want to make it any worse - I was just worried that your immediate reaction would be to reach for the phone

I then spoke to him yesterday after I went home and it's all good between us again.

Apparently, Mum wasn't that upset by my email - there's been other stuff happening (more on that below).

In some ways, I was more upset by my Dad being upset with me than anything else. Dad and I have always had a very good relationship - we are very alike in personality and usually bounce off each other very well. I can still walk into his office, which everyone else avoids as it's his inner sanctum, and in my sweetest voice say "Daddy darling..." and he'll turn around, smile indulgently and reply "How much?" ;o)

So Dad's reply was meant to be more of a "silly old moo" (that's what he calls my Mum) and "look at what she's overeacting to now" than having a go at me - there was an element of seriousness about it, but he wasn't at all upset with me. Which is good. I'm not sure if I would be able to cope with my Mum if I didn't have my Dad there to lighten the load with.

My niece

So the reason Mum called me? Nothing to do with the emails. My niece is in hospital for a few days - Dad actually told me this in one of the emails, but I didn't get a lot of details. So I actually took a couple of hours off work to head home and give them a call and find out more details. I didn't want to call from work in case it was bad news and I started crying at work (again *rolls eyes*). I had been home for only about 2 minutes when the phone rang - it was my Mum, she'd beat me to it. She had actually meant to ring me at work, but had called the home number by mistake.

Basically, my niece has been on a variety of drugs for a while because of a problem with her liver. They suspect that she will probably need a transplant once she's old enough. She's only 4yo, so that will be a few years down the track yet.

So anyway, apparently she had a recent set of blood tests which showed an improvement in her liver function and so my sister-in-law reduced the cocktail of drugs she was on (in line with what had previously happened whenever there was an improvement).

Turns out this was the wrong thing to do - the specialist (who had been overseas) saw the blood test results and said that there wasn't actually an improvement overall, only in some areas.

So the reduction in the drugs could have caused liver damage and she was put straight into hospital to go on a drip of the drugs and be monitored over the next 4 or 5 days. I spoke to Mum about it for ages and it seems that she's not actually sick at the moment, she's really in hospital so that they can easily monitor her progress and get a large dose of the drugs into her quickly.

So I'm feeling a lot better about that now.

My nephew

With everything happening with my niece, my nephew has gone to my sister-in-law's parent's farm for a few days. I can see the benefit in this - means they don't have to worry about what to do with him when they have to be at the hospital with my niece or seeing her doctors. But the poor little bugger is also sick. They thought it might have been german measles. How awful - 20 months old, feeling crook, and don't have mum to look after you. I felt so sorry for him.

But it turns out that it's just a virus which was producing the rash, not german measles and he's not feeling too sick with it, so can still run around the farm with his grandpa checking out all of the trucks and tractors. So quite likely he's quite enjoying himself.

My best friend

So I call T (of T&S) last night to cry on her shoulder. Considering my Mum was partially the cause of my need to cry and also going through enough at the moment, I didn't want to talk to her about it all. I was originally going to go around there to do this, but she didn't get my message until 7pm and by then I figured I should just stay home, not have a late night. So instead, I cried on her shoulder over the phone.

She is such an amazing person - she managed to make all of the right noises about what's been happening with my family and was completely understanding about why I'm so hurt about what happened with the Fairy. And did all of this while breastfeeding her baby.

We also chatted for a bit about some problems she's been having with her mum and her father-in-law. Apparently, they are just a bit too hands-on with the baby. Not that she minds them being so involved, just that it's hard to get him into a routine if they keep disturbing him out of it. I can see where she's coming from. My mum does the same thing to my sister-in-law. So I tried to make the right noises with her problems as well.

And I hung up the phone feeling better than I had all day.

The weekend

So now it's Friday of course and I have to do my usual wrap-up of my weekend plans. ;o)

I'm off tonight to see Falling Angels with the Law Student. I'm really looking forward to it. I've missed the Brisbane International Film Festival the last couple of years because I've been overseas at this time of year. And it's possible that the Dendy guy will come too.

Tomorrow I'm off to the races in one of those corporate boxes. This is a very weird thing for me. I'm am totally not a corporate yuppy. But the Nymph talked me into it - she thinks I'll enjoy it, and I like to try new stuff and have never been to the races before and never been in a corporate box type of deal before. So I'm basically going for the new experience. Of course, the biggest problem was - what the hell do I wear! My wardrobe is not exactly full of designer dresses and big hats that are the usual dress at the races. So I've compromised - I'm wearing slacks, an antique lace top, velvet jacket and boots with a heel (as opposed to my usual Doc Martens). It all starts mid-morning and I'm expecting it will last into the evening.

Sunday I'm planning to recover from the hangover I'm likely to have from Saturday (drinks are included in the ticket price and I like to get my money's worth) and then I'm heading over to T&S's place for dinner on Sunday night. I think we could possibly both use some more chat time.

And that's it. No gigs!

Listening to: The Kerbs - Live EP

Belle & Sebastian

Oh wow. The Belle & Sebastian gig last night was one of the best I've ever been to. Definitely in the top 10 - and considering how many gigs I go to, that's really saying something.

To begin with, there was the line-up - B&S were supported by speedstar*, one of my favourite BrisBands at present.

Then there was the company - I went with the the Dendy guy and we got there early to have a couple of drinks before the bands started. He is such a nice person. And easy to talk to. *smiles*

And the crowd - this must have been one of the nicest crowds I've ever seen at a sold out gig. I was up the top balcony and I'm not sure what it was like down in the "mosh pit" down the front, but there seemed to be a lack of pushing and shoving which was nice. Even the crowd at the bar were nice. And, considering that the gig was almost sold out before speedstar* were announced as the support, so probably most of the crowd had never heard of them, there were plenty of cheers and prolonged clapping at the end of the songs, and attention paid to the band during their songs (no loud conversations happening).

speedstar* were a really good mesh for B&S - similar in the sense that they are both pop-based and the vocals are very pretty, but more guitar driven and less gentle. I decided last night that they remind me a little bit of Cordrazine. And the drummer reminds me of Huggy Boy, a friend of mine from ages ago - so named because he gives those great wrap around hugs, not the awkward pat-pat sort of hugs that most guys do. Anyway, off that and back to the band. They mostly did stuff from Forget the Sun and a couple of the popular songs from Bruises - along with a cover of a Smiths song that I just loved. The Dendy guy was impressed by them as well.

Considering that I only have 2 of B&S's fairly vast discography of CDs, I was pretty impressed that I knew maybe 80% of the songs and they played all of my favourites. They are so melodious live - most bands seem to lose a bit live compared with their recordings, but I think these guys are better live. They also have a lot of energy on stage, and are true entertainers - making jokes and telling stories between songs. And of course, those accents... mmmmm...

They got 3 girls up on stage to do the percussion at one stage and 2 girls up for the last song to sing the verses. Biggest surprise there was that the 2 girls at the end had Aussie accents as I would have placed bets that the first couple of rows in front of the stage were all Brits.

I ran into a couple of friends there, which was a bit of a surprise as I hadn't known they were going. Bought the shirt of course. There were actually two and I liked the black one best, but they only had boy's sizes and the boy's small was huge, so I got the white one instead.

I left the gig walking on air. Part of that was probably the 3 beers I'd had without dinner, but most of it was the gig. And I think the Dendy guy likes me. Danced around my room for about 1/2 hour like a teenager before I could settle down and go to sleep.

So of course, today I'm absolutely buggered. But it was SO worth it!

Mum

As I was writing my update to yesterday's blog entry, I hit a realisation about the arguments I've been having with my Mum lately.

Mum's not really been herself since she and Dad moved house about 14 months ago - they'd been in their old house for about 20 years, so it was a big change for her. She's a lot more disapproving of my sister-in-law for starters. And she's still not organised in their new place and seems to lose things on a fairly regular basis. These two points are the cause of most of our arguments - she complains about being so disorganised and I offer to help or make suggestions about how she might be able to fix it. She complains about my sister-in-law and I try to see both sides of the tale. What I realised though is that the reason it often ends in argument is that I feel that she dismisses my opinion without even considering it.

Intellectually, I know that this is probably not true. I know that my Mum values my opinion and suspect that the reason she's getting narky is because she probably just wants to complain and not hear solutions. But I feel protective of her and can't seem to stop wanting to help. And then, because she's getting narky at me and trying to shut me down, I feel that she's dismissing my opinion.

So anyway, thinking it will help to head-off future arguments if I explain my realisation (and she usually WANTS me to tell her these things), I whip off an email to her last night before I headed off for B&S. I thought I had worded it fairly carefully - this is how I feel, not this is what you do... that sort of thing. But apparently she must have got pretty upset, because I received a pretty terse little email from my Dad this morning basically saying that she is how she is, she's not going to change, and that I shouldn't be telling her these things because they upset her and then her Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (aka Lupus) flares up. And of course, it's all my fault.

So now I'm crying at work. And I hate crying. Especially in public. And most especially at work where I'm supposed to behave professionally. Thank god I don't have any meetings today and can just bury myself in desk work.

I've sent an email back to my Dad explaining what I was trying to do (i.e. not hurt her!) and asking that they don't phone me for a couple of days. I just don't think I could take it right now.

Listening to: 2 compilations R in London burnt for me of "catchy" and "lyrical" songs

Back to work

After a couple of days off sick (again! So bloody sick of this! No pun intended. Feeling okay today - still a bit sore and coughy from being sick, but okay), I'm back and ready to talk about my weekend.

Friday night - as intended, a quiet night.

Saturday lunch - lunch was nice, all went to plan. The company could have been better (more on that below)

Saturday night - I can't remember the name of the first support, but they were pretty ordinary, so it's probably not an issue. It's not that they weren't good musically, they were just a bit samey, not enough variety in their tunes. Wes Davidson and band were great - nice blend of folk and pop. They had a little 2 song CD for sale, which I bought... I think they'll be huge someday and I'll be able to sell it for a fortune! ;o) A Millers Tale were also thoroughly enjoyable - they are a duo of guitars/vocals - I would probably describe them as catchy folk. The girl's voice reminded me a little of the chick from Frente, but both of them also looked familiar. I can only think that they are from a bigger band somewhere, but I'm buggered if I can remember.

The crowd was kind of sweet - obviously some were family and friends for A Millers Tale - they were sitting kind of near us. And a bunch of friends of Wes Davidson's band were also hanging around - one girl complained about the guys standing (maybe 5 metres) in front of where we were sitting and then, about 10 minutes later, stood directly in front of me. And I mean directly - I could actually touch her back without having to move my body in the slightest. I don't get it. Eventually, when her mate also joined them and stood in front of me, I tapped her on the shoulder and asked if she would mind moving about 30cm to the left (where there was heaps of room) so I could see. She did, but made the oddest little bow in doing so as if this was an outrageous request. Thereafter, her friends always left a little gap for me to see through, so I don't really care if they thought I was unreasonable... it worked! ;o)

Anyway, back to lunch with the Fairy - the food went well. I suppose it all went well in the sense that I gave myself closure. But that's about the nicest thing I can say about it. I don't think the Fairy wanted to be there. She made conversation really hard, even when I purposefully raised topics that she should be interested in, like psychology. She showed a complete lack of interest in what I had been up to lately (despite the fact that quite a lot has actually happened in the last 3 months) and was predictably unsupportive of the whole internet dating thing. She just seemed bored. And I got sick of trying to entertain her. So I'm not going to make any effort anymore and I expect that the friendship will just drop off. I'm a little hurt, because we had been very good friends, but realistically I suppose it was inevitable. And it's not like I don't have other friends. If I put a little effort into it, I could probably even make some more if I wanted to. ;o)

Update
I was just talking about this with a work colleague and she raised a valid point - for some reason I always seem to think it's my fault if I fall out of touch with someone... that I haven't done enough. I think it is because I find it so easy to let go of people - I can easily go for a couple of months without even thinking about a friend, let alone contacting them. So I feel guilty about losing touch. Then there is also the added factor with the Fairy that:-

(a) I am very hurt by the way she cut off contact with me when I was overseas, then didn't come to my birthday, and didn't seem particularly interested in seeing me when I came back; and

(b) I always feel that I can't express my opinions to her about anything without having to walk on eggshells - she seems to think that me expressing my opinion is me telling her what to think rather than me telling her what I think (I guess I get opinions from everyone and then make up my own mind, so it doesn't bother me to get contradictory opinions from people) - so I try to communicate with her without actually telling her what I think, which is never very successful - I'm a very opinionated person and there are only so many non-opinionated comments you can make without sounding disinterested.

Which brings me to something else - the Fairy accused me of being aggressive on Saturday. I know for a fact that I'm not a very aggressive lawyer - more negotiator than bulldog litigator - I like to resolve matters to the agreement of all. She asked me if I thought I was an aggressive person. And I don't really think I am because:-

(a) My opinions tend to be formed intellectually rather than emotionally, so I'm not overly attached to them. I can be rationalised out of them as long as I'm not attacked personally, and not treated as though my opinion (and I highlight that because it is only an opinion) is completely invalid.

(b) Unless I lose my temper, which actually occurs very rarely (maybe a couple of times a year?), I tend to argue my points calmly and rationally and I only get loud when someone tries to speak over me. I think this is a trait of large families (I only have one sibling, but I have 20 odd cousins that I grew up with) - if someone tries to interupt, just keep speaking more loudly. Actually, even then, I tend to let it go the first few times it happens.

(c) Even when I lose my temper, I never get physical and I actually don't get loud, I get quiet but "very intense and I enunciate extremely clearly" - and yep, that's a direct quote from one who has seen it many times.

(d) I guess I don't think of myself as aggressive because I'm basically so happy and accepting of people. I'm quite happy for other people to have their opinions (after all, ask 2 lawyers and you'll get 2 opinions) and usually like hearing them as long as they don't ram them down my throat and completely disregard that there may be another opinion out there (I have this problem with my co-worker quite a lot - he asks my opinion and then yells at me, telling me why I'm wrong).

The only area where I think I am more aggressive than the average bear is where there is some injustice - especially to my friends and family. I will complain to the company or whatever if me or mine have been treated unfairly by their staff. I will stand up for my legal rights in a dispute. But I do it without any personal animosity and in polite language. I prefer to complain in writing so that I can write it while I'm ticked off and then revise a couple of hours later when I'm calm and happy again.

Does this make me an aggressive person? No really - I'm interested - tell me in my comments.

Listening to: Belle & Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress

plans for the weekend

I seem to have fallen into a pattern with my blogging - Friday I post about my plans for the weekend, Monday I talk about what I actually did (which is usually less than I planned) and then the rest of the week I talk about other stuff.

So, to follow the pattern - this weekend my plans are fairly simple. Nothing happening tonight. Just a chance to relax, watch some TV and catch up on my personal emails. Tomorrow I'm hoping to catch up with an old friend who I ran into walking to work yesterday - he lives over near me, so nothing is planned, I'll just call him and see what he's up to once I've done all my housework. And of course, there's the housework to be done - lots of it, since I didn't get anything done last weekend with being away and not much the weekend before with Fiesta on.

Saturday night, I'm heading in to the Troubadour to see A Millers Tale and Wes Davidson with the Law Student. My one gig for the weekend - it must be almost a record.

Sunday, I'm hoping to catch up with the Fairy. I'm feeling a bit ambiguous about this to be fair - I do want to catch up with her and share about what's been happening in each other's lives. But I'm still feeling pretty niggly about how she's been treating me lately - if you want to keep your friends as friends and not just mere acquaintances, you have to put a bit of time and effort into them. I feel that I've been making all of the effort and she hasn't even put in the slightest bit of time. Even now, it's early in the uni year, she doesn't have assignments due, or exams pending or anything like that, but when I mention catching up I just keep on getting the impression that it's all too much effort from her point of view. She would rather be studying that seeing me. Not that she WANTS to see me or to catch up. I'm starting to get that "well, if she can't be bothered, then neither can I" feeling and I don't like that in myself.

We were supposed to catch up with each other last night at Tylea, but she bailed because she wasn't feeling well and felt she would just want to crash after work. I can understand that. As it turns out, I didn't go either. Just felt bleh after work and kept on finding excuses to put off going for another 1/2 hour until it was probably too late to bother going at all. But I think part of my feeling bleh was that, once again, the Fairy was making excuses not to see me. Not that I don't think that the excuse wasn't genuine, just that she could've made an effort - it's not like we see each other all the time.

Anyway, we are currently at an impasse - I suggested she come to my place, she suggested coffee at a cafe near her place, and now I've suggested lunch at my place. I just can't get over the feeling that if we end up having coffee near her place, either (a) the boy will come too, or (b) she will find an excuse after 1/2 an hour to leave. We can't meet at her place because the boy will be there and I don't want to talk about this stuff in front of anyone else. And I've never really felt comfortable at her place - she's not a particularly good host for things like that - doesn't make sure she has nibblies and drinks when she knows someone will be coming over for an extended time - and she'll answer the phone while I'm there and then have a long conversation with the person on the other end, while I just hang around. That really annoys me. And I would be pissed off if I drive the 1/2 hour over there to only spend 1/2 hour with her. And she hasn't even seen my place yet. And she could always do other stuff over this side of town (like the markets - we used to go to those together all the time) - there's nothing else I can do over her side.

I'm being really picky and petty about this, I know it. I just want her to have to make some effort dammit! I want her to put the time into me for a change. I figure that's fair - I'll put the time into doing something nice for lunch, and she can put the time into coming over to my place. That way it's not all one-sided.

*sigh* In some ways I'll be relieved if it all falls through. I hate conflict, especially with my friends, but I can't leave things as they stand. I feel guilty because everyone else knows stuff that I haven't told her yet. I feel guilty about it because she's supposed to be a close friend and so I would share these things with her, but I haven't shared them with her because I haven't seen her. For me, it needs to be one way or the other. Either we agree to cool it as friends, or we agree that our friendship is a priority and deserves a little attention.

Somehow, I think it's going to be the former. Oh well.

Listening to: Core Sample 03

test results

I did these tests ages ago, but keep on having far too much else to post about to bother posting these. Today I have nothing to say, so you get graced with the intricacies of my personality. Lucky you.

The titles of each test are also links to either the tests or the full results page.


Personality Test

Wackiness: 46/100
Rationality: 44/100
Constructiveness: 44/100
Leadership: 56/100

You are an SEDL--Sober Emotional Destructive Leader. This makes you a dictator. You prefer to control situations, and lack of control makes you physically sick. You feel have responsibility for everyone's welfare, and that you will be blamed when things go wrong. Things do go wrong, and you take it harder than you should.

You rely on the validation and support of others, but you have a secret distrust for people and distaste for their habits and weaknesses that make you keep your distance from them. This makes you very difficult to be with romantically. Still, a level-headed peacemaker can keep you balanced.

Despite your fierce temper and general hot-bloodedness, you have a soft spot for animals and a surprising passion for the arts. Sometimes you would almost rather live by your wits in the wilderness somewhere, if you could bring your books and your sketchbook.

You also have a strange, undeniable sexiness to you. You may go insane.

I don't think this is right. I'm already insane. The strange, undeniable sexiness part is right though. ;o)


Better Person Test

Your score as a human being is 79.55.

Middle of the road, eh? Does that mean you're yellow? Yellow as a salamander frying on blacktop? Yellow as a urinal cake? Yellow as a delicious marshmallow Peep? Mmmm. Peep. Sometimes I think if it weren't for Just Born candy, I would just expel my life force and expire. Hot Tamales. Mike and Ikes.

But I digress.

Nicely done. You are robustly average, and I approve of it.

Hmmm... I'm "robustly average" as a human being. Okay. I can handle that.


Job Score

Your job's score is 95.

Yours is among the best and brightest jobs on earth. I heartily commend you for ascending to this position, and extend to you the warmest of wishes for your continued success in the business world. You are a Wall Street Journal column waiting to happen. Your job is coveted, your reputation is sterling, and your ego is unbearable.

You are probably going to get fired.

Nah, it's more likely that I'll get bored and move on. Or change my job to make it more challenging and stressful. I'm good at that.


Music Personality Test

Reflective and Complex
People high on this dimension tend to enjoy Classical, Blues, Jazz, and Folk music. On the Reflective & Complex Dimension you fell in the 65 percentile. This score is quite high.

Based on your responses, you scored above average on the reflective and complex music-preference dimension. Research in our laboratory indicates that people high on this dimension, like you, often have the following characteristics:

People with high scores on the reflective and complex music-preference dimension tend to be open to new experiences, creative, intellectual, and enjoy trying new things. When it comes to politics, they tend to lean toward the liberal side. Wisdom, diversity, and fine arts are all important to them. When it comes to lifestyle, high scorers tend to be sophisticated, and relatively well off financially. After a hard day of work, if they're not listening to music or reading a book, they enjoy documentary films, independent, classic, or foreign films.

Edgy and Aggressive
People high on this dimension tend to enjoy Alternative, Rock, and Heavy Metal music. On the Edgy & Aggressive Dimension you fell in the 33 percentile. This score is quite low.

Based on your responses, you scored below average on the edgy and aggressive music-preference dimension. Research in our laboratory indicates that people low on this dimension, like you, often have the following characteristics:

People with low scores on the energetic and aggressive music-preference dimension don't get their kicks on skydiving or rock climbing. They tend to be friendly, less assertive than the average person, and conventional. They tend to place a lot of importance on family security, salvation, and tranquility. When they're not listening to music, watching television, or reading a book, they probably enjoy watching a dramatic movie, major motion picture, romance movie, or classic film.

Fun and Simple
People high on this dimension tend to enjoy Pop, Religious, Country, and Soundtrack music. On the Fun & Simple Dimension you fell in the 6 percentile. This score is very low.

Based on your responses, you scored below average on the fun and simple music-preference dimension. Research in our laboratory indicates that people low on this dimension, like you, often have the following characteristics:

People with low scores on the fun and simple music-preference dimension tend to introverted, unconventional, and artistic. When it comes to morals and values, chances are that they lean toward the liberal side, and consider beauty and inner harmony important principles in life. When selecting a movie to watch, they prefer suspense movies, cult movies, or foreign films.

Energetic and Upbeat
People high on this dimension tend to enjoy Hip-hop, Rap, Funk, Soul, and Electronic music. On the Energetic & Upbeat Dimension you fell in the 4 percentile. This score is very low.

Based on your responses, you scored below average on the energetic and upbeat music-preference dimension. Research in our laboratory indicates that people low on this dimension, like you, often have the following characteristics:

People with low scores on the energetic and upbeat music-preference dimension tend to be introverted, less assertive than the average person, and detail oriented. As for politics and values, they tend to lean to the conservative side, and value intellect, ambition, and high art. When it comes to lifestyle, low scorers on the energetic and upbeat dimension often come from the middle and upper classes. When they're not reading, they're probably watching a romance movie, classic film, or western movie.

Less assertive than the average person? Not sure about that. And some of these seem to contradict themselves. Not terribly impressed by this survey.


Morality Test

79% liberal, 21% conservative

- You tend to hold progressive/liberal values, but are more traditional on some aspects.
- When it comes to social morals, you feel that society's current laws are too restrictive and are much too conservative.
- You believe that government is too conservative and would prefer it to change several of its political and practices.

Yep - this is about right as well.


Big Five Personality Test

O84-C69-E74-A87-N18

- You enjoy having novel experiences and seeing things in new ways.
- You are well-organized, and are reliable.
- You are relatively social and enjoy the company of others.
- You are good-natured, courteous, and supportive.
- You probably remain calm, even in tense situations.

I'm not sure about the courteous - "subtle as a sledgehammer" is a phrase usually used to describe me. I do hold open doors for people though. Not sure how this matches with my ISTP profile.

Blirtatiousness test

Blirter
Your answers indicate that you are a high blirter, which means that you have a tendency to express your thoughts as soon as they come to mind, become very engaged in conversations and interrupt those around you, and respond to people in conversations quickly. Because you're good at keeping conversations going, others see you as very sociable and likable. If you're not careful you may sometimes come across as brash. In general, you think well of yourself, partly because your willingness to express yourself allows you to get your needs met with little difficulty.

Your self-criticalness: Low
You scored relatively low on the criticalness scale. This means that you tend to rate yourself relatively low on the following dimensions: critical, judgmental, moody, controlling and dominant. You also rated yourself as relatively high on these dimensions: patient, warmth, and tolerance

I just rate myself highly. *g* And yes, my Dad has always said that you know exactly what is on my mind because it comes out of my mouth.


Personality Disorder Test

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid:	Moderate
Schizoid:	Low
Schizotypal:	Low
Antisocial:	Low
Borderline:	Low
Histrionic:	Low
Narcissistic:	Moderate
Avoidant:	Low
Dependent:	Low
Obsessive-Compulsive:	Low

Oh. I don't have a personality disorder then? I'm disappointed.


Dante's Inferno Test

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Eighth Level of Hell - the Malebolge!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Moderate
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very High
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Very High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Moderate

Oh man! I nearly made all the way to the deepest levels of hell! I so thought I was evil enough for that. I could have had fun living with Satan.

Actually the only surprise there is that I scored so high on "violence" - anyone who knows me would say that I can wound with words, but I'm never physically violent. But I think I scored high there because I blaspheme. A lot.

Listening to: The Frames - For the Birds

random ramblings

The interview

I had my interview for the other PO4 position yesterday. Talking to one of the other interviewees afterwards, I said that I'd felt like a wanker and she said she'd felt like a dickhead, so that gives you some idea of the interview.

Some of the questions were:

1(a) Without breaching client confidentiality, please outline to the panel the most significant single advice that you have provided to a client with particular reference to its strategic significance for that client or that client's operations?

1(b) In retrospect, would your advice have been different or been presented differently?

2. What does it mean to you to be part of a team?

3. What makes a good communicator with respect to interaction with members of the public, professional colleagues and work colleagues?

Part of my problem with the first question is that the nature of my work is that I don't tend to give one single advice for a matter. I give an initial advice, then further advices as the matter progresses. So trying to think of a significant single advice was actually quite difficult.

We had 10 minutes to prepare and then 45 to talk about it. 10 minutes was nowhere near long enough to prepare. I ended up doing the last question with no preparation at all, but it had the least weighting, so hopefully it won't be a problem.

I doubt I'll get the job though. My written application wasn't particularly good and I was up against people who've actually done that job.

The play

I went to see "Wit" by Margaret Edson with the Nymph last night. It was a nice night - we had dinner and beer at Verve first - the food was really good and we both had expensive imported beer, which was quite tasty *licks lips while remembering*.

The play was brilliant - funny, yet confronting. The guy who played Dr Jason Posner did that annoying doctor role to a tee - I remember dealing with doctors like him when my uncle was dying of cancer. The actress playing the nurse, Susie, also did a fantastic job - she did that look that nurses give you when they're writing up their charts, where they don't really look at you, they evaluate you. And the main character, Dr Vivian Bearing, was played to perfection. She reminded me a lot of one of my aunts with that slightly bitter wit and obvious intelligence and education that comes out in every comment. I would recommend it to anyone.

Something I found interesting is that there's a listing for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners in the front of the program (Margaret Edson won the prize for this play in 1999) and there are a number of years that there was no award. Why was this? Do they not give an award if they think there has been no play worthy of it that year? But surely in all of the plays in all of the world, there must be one worthy of a Pulitzer each year? If you know the answer, please let me know in the comments.

Juries

I have been reading this article in the December 2003 Qld Bar News (p16 & 17) on juries and what they think of the barristers who appear in the trials they are on.

Being from a civil litigation/quasi-criminal* trial background, I have never participated in a jury trial, as they are only used in Australia for limited criminal trials. So I've been fascinated by the account of The Uncivil Litigator in his first jury trial.

Anyway, this article was based on the research of a PhD student, who interviewed 19 jurors about being on the jury. The comment which seemed to go throughout the article was how much juries disliked the theatrics which barristers (especially criminal barristers) so often engage in.

This is part of the reason why I didn't become a barrister - barristers are generally larger-than-life to some degree. They like to be the centre of attention and love being on their feet and "performing" to the Magistrate or Judge. On the other hand, I am what I refer to as a social introvert. I'm perfectly friendly and generally meet people easily, but I hate being the centre of attention and usually spend more time listening to people in a social context that talking. I'm often the person who sits in the corner at a party being overly amused by the antics of those around me, but just talking to one or two people. I'm definitely the audience, not the performer.

I have always done a certain degree of court work as a solicitor. In my first job, as an article clerk, any matter on the callover was generally left to me because of the delays that are usually experienced in appearing in the Magistrates Court. I also tend to do the interlocutory applications for civil matters or the initial mention and pleas of guilty for quasi-criminal matters. I have never been the advocate on a matter through to trial, but have often instructed Counsel (a barrister) at trial. I enjoy instructing Counsel, but I don't really enjoy doing court appearances myself.

Another adverse comment was that the barrister didn't really seem to be involved in the outcome, that it was all a "big game" to them. I actually think that this is not a problem, but a good thing - you really don't want a lawyer who is personally involved to be running your case, you need their objectivity. Sure you want someone who will fight for you, but not someone who is going to feel personally slighted by a bad result or a settlement offer. If a lawyer becomes too personally involved in a case, then they are only doing half their job. Being able to look at the evidence objectively is part of giving good legal advice.

But then, I'm a negotiator at heart, so possibly that skews my perspective to some degree.

*quasi-criminal matters are the prosecution of an offence for which the maximum penalty is a fine - sometimes a hefty fine, but there is no possibility of jail time if found guilty. Most criminal law in Queensland is governed by the Criminal Code, but quasi-criminal offences are offences under some other piece of legislation. They are heard in the Magistrates Court, which is the lowest court in Queensland, and there is no right to a jury.

Listening to: Ben Kweller - On My Way

a weekend which went as planned

Back to the real world after my long weekend.

It was all very pleasant. I headed up to Toowoomba on Friday night and stayed up chatting to my Mum until about 2am. I spent Saturday doing my washing, catching up on some sleep, shopping with Mum - then about 3pm or so B&S and the Kids arrived over with A (from R&A) about 10 minutes behind them. So chatted to A until about 5pm or so - she's well, coping with pregnancy very well and looking great.

That night we had a roast for dinner - not sitting in front of the TV to eat for a change because my Dad's brother was there for dinner as well. Mmmmm - love roast dinners. My folks have this strange little oven thingo which does the roast and the veggies and then you just shove some water and detergeant into it and it cleans itself. Wonderous thing. If I ever start cooking meat for myself, I might invest in one.

Sunday was my brother's birthday lunch. There ended up being about 20 of us by the time you included a couple of friends of theirs and all of the kids. We all headed out to the Highfields Tavern and Mum and Dad and I shared a bottle of red - which meant that Mum and Dad had a glass each and I finished the rest. I had a lovely time, but then, after 3 glasses of red, I was a little smashed!

Spent most of my time running about after my little nephew - he's 2 in November and is nicknamed "Turbo" - gives you some idea. Gorgeous kid, but my lord he's got some energy!

Sunday night my cousin and his wife arrived. I had developed a headache during the course of the afternoon and had taken 2 Mersyndol about 1/2 hour before they arrived, so I imagine I didn't make the best first impression! I tried to be friendly, but was really too busy staring vacantly at the wall to try very hard.

Anyway, Monday I made up for it. Talked both of their ears off and gave them ideas of touristy things to do around Toowoomba before I headed off for my appointment with the Guru. Two hours later, my back was straight again, the kinks had been worked out of my legs and my neck was also feeling a lot looser. There wasn't anything really wrong to head off to see him, just a bit of a tune up. He pretty much confirmed what I already thought - the old bod's in pretty good shape. Always nice to hear, especially since I'd done 7 months of travel since I'd last seen him (complete with 35kg worth of packs that I lugged around on my back).

I headed back to the folks place after my appointment and grabbed some lunch. By then it was 4pm and I would have hit Brisbane right on peak hour, so I decided to wait for a bit before I headed off. Then I decided to have dinner first. Then I chatted for a bit after dinner. I ended up heading off around 7:30pm and got home about 9pm.

Only to practically walk into my door, which was closed (I never close it and had an armful of stuff that I could barely see over) - then I actually walked into my drying rack which my flatmate had moved into my room, right in front of my door, for some unknown reason. Let me just say that having the pointy end of a drying rack hit you in the guts when you're pre-menstrual is not a pleasant feeling. I was not a happy camper.

As per usual with me though, I was completely over it 1/2 hour later.

We must have had a black out last night because my alarm didn't go off this morning and my clock was all off. This meant that I didn't get into work until late this morning and can't take my usual breaks to do stuff like this and still do a full working day before I meet the Nymph to go to dinner then a play tonight.

I also have my interview for the other PO4 position this afternoon. So I'll blog more on that stuff tomorrow.

Listening to: Belle & Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress

Planning a quiet weekend

For a change, I have no big plans for this weekend.

I'm heading up to Toowoomba for my brother's birthday and my only plans are to catch up with family and sleep a lot. Oh and hopefully catch up with R&A and see if she has a bump yet (she's just over 4 months pregnant).

Sunday night, my cousin the psychiatrist arrives up from Melbourne for a visit with his newly pregnant wife (who I actually haven't met yet). She's also a lawyer, but she drafts legislation and has apparently led a very sheltered life, so I'm not expecting to have a lot in common with her.

Monday I've taken time off in lieu (one of the main reasons why I love working for government) and have an appointment with The Guru to fix up my body a bit. I have no idea what he does, but it works, so I don't really care! ;o) I've been feeling very tired lately and a little down yesterday and today, which is unusual for me as I'm usually pretty chirpy and happy. I was also very sore at yoga last night - couldn't get my legs to do a lot of stuff and the muscles kept on jumping. They were probably a little tight from Wednesday night's workout, but that usually wouldn't make a difference after warm-up. So maybe this is a good time to visit The Guru and get a bit of a "tune up" - I haven't been since before I went overseas, so it's probably been about 18 months now.

And of course, at some stage over the weekend, we'll be having a birthday party for my brother. I know my sister-in-law is planning something, but I'm not entirely sure when or what or who else will be there. I suppose I'll find out tonight when I get there.

Yesterday, I had lunch with two of my old work colleagues - one is still in my old area and the other has now moved into a Freedom of Information Act role. It was good to catch up with them. I found out some goss, caught up with what they've been up to, got a few tips which will help with a guide I'm drafting to assist decision makers in recognising what they need to take into account in making their decision, and had a few laughs. It was like old times. I had found these two to be a bit standoffish when I first came back into my old job after being overseas, and wondered what was going on. Whatever it was, it seems to be over - which is a good thing, because they are the only two of my work colleagues that I socialise with outside of work. As a general rule, I don't like lawyers very much.

Work is progressing, slowly. I'm still waiting for my colleague and the 3 managers to get back to me on the work I've finished (some of which I finished months ago - things really do move a lot more slowly here in policy), and I'm gradually finishing off my guideline for decision makers - I'm so steeped in administrative law at the moment that I think if someone mentions the words "natural justice" or "procedural fairness" over the next few days, I may just scream. Loundly. And for a long time.

Thank god for a 3 day weekend.

Listening to: Women in Docs - Under a different sky

The Fairy is engaged!

I found out yesterday that the Fairy is engaged to her new live-in boyfriend. When she told me, I thought she was kidding. Not only because this is not exactly a long-term relationship (I mean 6 months of a long-distance relationship and 3 weeks of living together do not a potential marriage make in my opinion!), but because she's always maintained that she didn't see the point in getting married.

To some extent, I agree - I see no point in getting married unless you're planning to have kids in the near future. There's a couple of parts to this opinion:-

1. I'm not religious, so a ceremony in a church means nothing to me.

2. But I think the piece of paper is still (even in this day and age) worth getting for a certain degree of stability with a family. I listen to the way kids talk and they still talk to each other about Mum and Dad being married (or used to be married, for those with divorced parents). There still seems to be a certain stigma of being the product of unmarried parents.

3. Considering it's likely that I will be giving up a couple of years of my career in order to produce and bring up the kids, I want a public ceremony where the future father of those children tells all of our family and friends that he's dedicated to me and wants to spend the rest of his life with me. I'm committing myself to him by giving up my body to have his kids - I think he should also make some tangible sort of committment.

4. You still have better rights in Australia, legally, as a wife than you do as a de facto - once again, I'm going to be reliant upon the father financially for a while, and I want the most complete set of rights I can possibly have.

I suppose, in a nutshell, it's a security thing for me. I have a successful career and earn well at present and don't need the security of a wedding certificate in order to have a fullfilling relationship with someone. However, if I'm going to give up any part of that, then I want the security of that piece of paper and the ceremony to feel comfortable in giving that up.

The only other reason I can think of for getting married is for overseas travel - marriage will often get you a work visa where de facto won't.

However - the Fairy and her boyfriend don't have either of these reasons. She doesn't want to have kids for another 7 or so years and both of them are young enough that they don't have to worry about age restrictions in getting work visas in Europe (which is where they want to travel to). And the about face about getting married is confusing me as well - I'm a little worried that maybe he's pressuring her into it.

Something I found amusing though was that she said that she insisted on a long engagement... and then said that they are talking about October next year! I think her definition of a long engagement is a little different to mine. For me, a 15 month engagement is about standard - after all it usually takes about a year just to organise the wedding anyway. A long engagement would be a couple of years - maybe 3 or 4.

The problem for me is that usually I'm bubbling over with happiness about good news like this, but I just can't be happy for her in this case. Firstly, I think they're rushing things and she does tend to make decisions with her heart without thinking through the consequences of her decisions (like whether they'll still want to be together after a couple of months living together). Secondly, of course, is that I don't like him. And everything further I hear just reinforces that.

I did a bit of a probe with some of the people that I know have met him and my opinion of him is pretty much matched by everyone else - so it's not just me.

The last time this happened was B and her boyfriend N, who I also though was a pretentious prat. Admittedly, I disliked him with much more passion than the Fairy's boyfriend though. But my dislike of N meant that my friendship with B just faded away. I never told her that I disliked him, I just stopped making any effort to catch up with her because she would either bring N with, or spent a lot of time talking about him and I'm just not two-faced enough to be able to make "I'm so happy for you" noises when I'm not. Anyway, I can see this happening with the Fairy as well, and it makes me sad.

On the other hand, we have been growing apart for a while, with her study and all - and I was very hurt that she didn't make the effort to come to my 30th (which was also my first day back in Australia after 7 months away, so most of my friends made the effort to be there) - so I suppose that I may have stopped making the effort to see her anyway, even without the boyfriend. It's a shame though, because I've always valued her friendship - she is very different to me and keeps me in touch with the "arty" side of my personality.

On the upside, I ran into S (of G&S) in the street yesterday and I'm hoping to catch up with them soon. Their son is now 3yo! I can't believe it! But they'll keep me in touch with my "arty" side... they're even artier than the Fairy.

And maybe some of these guys I've been dating will help with that as well - a few of them are into the artier side of things.

Listening to: No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom

search for my grandfather

Looking through my list of topics that I want to post about, I realised that I still haven't blogged about my search for information on my grandfather.

Basically, Dad's parents were married just after WWII - he was in Brisbane on R&R and she was the spoilt daughter of a wealthy grazier working in Brisbane during the war for something to do. After my father was born in 1945, they moved to America and settled near his parents who apparently (so I've been told) hated her because she "stole him" from his childhood sweetheart. She certainly hated it there - she wasn't prepared for a life of semi-poverty living in a caravan in the Deep South with a small baby. She was the sort of country girl who was used to having a bunch of workers to help out around the property and in the homestead, while his background was more like being one of the workers. So when she fell pregnant with my Dad's younger brother, she came back to the relative comforts of home to have the baby. From what I can gather, she expected him to follow her back to Australia, but he didn't, and instead they were divorced when my Dad was 2 years old.

My Dad is pretty hazy on the details, he barely remembers his father - hasn't seen him since he left America and hasn't heard from him since about a year after that.

Anyway, for ages now, I've been wanting to track him down and find out what happened to him after the divorce.

Unfortunately, the only real way to track him down was to either go to America and spend some time searching, or do hire a PI to do the investigation for me - neither of which I could really afford.

But now of course, there are all of these internet searches you can do. No details about next of kin though and I don't know how to find them without resorting to one of the previous avenues - visit the USA, or hire a PI. The first option is a possibility now that I'm earning well, but I'm not sure how successful it would be given that I only have a town of last residence and can't be sure that he even had any family in the area. The main problem with the second option is that I don't really know how to find a PI in the US that would take on a client who has no assets in the US and I can be sure wouldn't rip me off and I could pay by VISA or something from over here.

So in the meantime, I've done searches for newspapers in the area that might have run his obituary (which would have family details I hope), I've posted info on my search onto the family tree website for my last name, and I've found someone with my last name in the town he was born in who I'm writing to to see if she's related. I've found a whole heap of people with my last name where he died, and have emailed one of them to see if he's related to my grandfather - if that doesn't get any results, I might try a bulk mailout to the others.

And so the search continues.

Listening to: The Very Best Of The Pogues

The Interview

I just realised yesterday that I hadn't posted back to here about my interview last Thursday.

It didn't go particularly well. As I mentioned before, the interview was a little different from most in that it was actually more like an oral exam - not particularly surprising I guess seeing as the 4 people interviewed were 3 internal applicants and 1 external applicant who used to be internal. All 4 of which had worked in this particular team before or were currently working in the team.

Anyway, I don't think I'm losing my anonymity by posting the 4 questions - we had 15 minutes to prepare for them and then 30 minutes before the panel to answer them.

The questions were:

1. Give (1) example where you used your skills in each of the following areas -

(a) written and oral communication skills;
(b) interpersonal, consultation and negotiation skills.

2. Give one (1) example of your use of legal research in the preparation of a commercial legal advice and your use of problem solving and analytical skills to effectively resolve the issues involved in that advice.

3. Give one (1) example of a commercial contract, agreement, licence or other commercial document drafted by you and the special issues you had regard to when drafting it.

4. You are experiencing difficulty in your working relationship with a colleague in your team. You are asked to work together on a file in order to provide a detailed advice within a short time frame. How do you approach this task in order to provide a quality outcome within the required time frame?

I think I took only about 20 minutes in the interview to answer them. I just felt crappy and, to be perfectly honest, really only wanted the whole thing to be over and done with. I answered the best I could with my feverish little brain, but walked out of there knowing I hadn't done well.

So it was no surprise to find out yesterday afternoon that I didn't get the job. What was a surprise is that the girl that I thought would get it didn't. The successful applicant was a girl that I had heard wasn't particularly good at the job. An even bigger surprise was that the feedback from the chair of the panel was that we were all very close on interview, but the girl who got the job had better responses to the selection criteria for the job. While I knew that my selection criteria responses were pretty crappy, I had thought that my interview was even worse!

Now I just have to think about the next one on 20th July.

Listening to: East Coast Blues and Roots Festival 2003 - CD2

Valley Fiesta

Thought I'd send one massive email with a round up of the last three days.

Just briefly, a word of explanation about the Valley Fiesta. It's a Friday night to Sunday night festival of music and shopping that is held in the malls around my usual haunt, Fortitude Valley. The Valley is were nearly all of the live music venues are and, I'm told, is where the "cool" people hang out. Luckily, people like me are allowed to hang out there as well. You can click through to this site to find out more about the specifics of the Fiesta.

Friday

I was off sick again on Friday - it wasn't too bad as I worked from home, but I had these little marks/bumps on my tummy and was a bit worried about chicken pox. I've already had it as a kid, but I've heard that there is a new version of the virus going around and figured it was better for me to stay home and not infect my co-workers (many of whom have young children). Turns out it was just a form of heat rash from the high fevers I've been running with the 'flu. Never had heat rash before so hadn't recognised it. All better now anyway.

Friday night was the Fairy's housewarming party. She has recently moved in with this guy she met at Woodford in January this year who moved up from Sydney and moved straight in with her. I found this a little freaky I have to admit - they've only been together for 6 months, all of it a long distance relationship, and now they're living together. That would be way too much, way too soon for me. But each to their own and I was sure I would like this guy seeing as the Fairy is so taken with him.

I was wrong. I didn't. Initial reaction was that he's a pretentious prat.

I think the housewarming party was for all of us to meet him and most hadn't met him before, so maybe he was nervous meeting all of these friends who knew each other well and were happily chatting about their lives. So I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt and put aside my initial reaction to him and make an effort to get to know him better and hopefully like him. This is assuming that I actually see enough of him to get to know him. I haven't seen much of the Fairy lately and don't really know anything about her life and, unless she's heard gossip from The Tall Guy or The Ex, I know she knows nothing about mine because I haven't seen her on her own in the last couple of months to be able to tell her about it.

Despite still being a bit 'fluey, I enjoyed the party. The Fairy's Mum and her Mum's husband were there and I really like both of them and enjoy their company. Unfortunately, I didn't get to talk to them much - thought I would catch up with them at the Valley Fiesta on Sunday, but more about that later.

I also caught up with one of the Fairy's ex co-workers who we went surfing with in Byron Bay before I went overseas last year. I enjoyed chatting to her as well and caught up with what she's been up to in the last 18 months. And of course, T&S were there and are always good value, as are the K couple. There were a few people I hadn't met before there as well - but they arrived late (probably the Fairy's hospitality friends) and I was starting to feel a bit off again (and so anti-social) and didn't really talk to them much. Just enough for "Hi" and "Bye" really.

Surprisingly (to me anyway), The Ex wasn't there. Not sure if this is a good or bad thing or even worthy of comment. I actually didn't notice until my Mum asked me whether he was there, and realised he hadn't been. I supposed that he hasn't been to so many parties that I go to that it didn't even occur to me that he would usually be there. And I was enjoying chatting to the others and it didn't occur to me to ask about him. It's sort of nice to have that bit of external validation to the internal feeling that I really don't care about him anymore.

Anyway, I ended up leaving with T&S about 11pm. Probably just as well, because it took me about 20 minutes to get through the Valley (a section which usually takes about 2 minutes and I could walk in 10!) because of traffic from the Valley Fiesta.

Saturday

I made a concerted effort to sleep in on Saturday morning which was mostly successful. When it wasn't, I watched TV, read my book and did a little cleaning.

I headed into the Valley at midday to check out the markets before the first band I wanted to see came on. The markets were a little disappointing I must say - I was hoping to pick up something cool and hand-made for the Fairy's birthday and couldn't find anything that I thought she'd like. I did pick up a couple of CDs (Best of The Pogues and a mix CD of the East Coast Blues and Roots Festival 2003) for my brother's birthday and the Machine Translations CD I'm currently listening to and a couple of $5 shirts for myself though.

So, onto the music. First up were Charles Foster Kane who I've been a bit of a fan of for a while. About 1/2 way through their set it poured rain (for the 2nd time that day, first time was while I was walking in! Go figure!) and they had to stop or risk electrocution. So it was a short set. The crowd seemed to be into them and they pulled a fair number of people for a 1:20pm set, so I'd be guessing they'd be happy with that. I stood towards the back of the crowd so I could boogy a bit and not feel awkward. Except for the rain, I enjoyed their (shortened) set. They did a lot of songs I didn't know but they have a new EP out that I haven't bought yet and those songs are probably from there. They also did a couple from their 2nd eponymous EP, but I don't recall hearing any from Northern.

Next, I did a little more browsing phoned the Nymph (who is a girl I used to know a couple of years ago who phoned me out of the blue on Wednesday and we arranged to meet up at the Fiesta - I call her the Nymph because she once had a worse reputation than mine, it's tounge in cheek - she's actually a really lovely girl and so I forgive her for being completely physically beautiful - think Catherine Zeta Jones but shorter and with a bigger bust in proportion to her size and you have some idea) and then headed over to the Warner St stage to meet her before Women in Docs. I had forgotten how good these guys are. I love their tunes, I love their lyrics, I love their stage presence, I love their "boys" (the drummer and violinist), and I love their sense of humour with their stage banter. Most bands never seem to get that down - they either make a heap of in-jokes which leave most of the audience alienated, mumble so no-one can understand what they're saying anyway, or just don't even try. Women in Docs do total entertainment. I'm looking forward to seeing them again... but not enough to go to the Gympie Muster, which is apparently their next gig in the area!

The Nymph and I headed back to my place once their set ended. My stomach was still a little dodgy and I was still on black tea and dry toast. So I was hungry and decided that this was a good time to do both. So we drank our tea, I ate my toast, and we caught up on what we'd been up to in the last 3 years or so since we'd last seen each other. It was nice. I'm looking forward to catching up with her again. We are thinking of heading to the Metro to see a play together sometime in the next couple of weeks.

We headed back in just in time to catch Doch at the Chinatown Mall stage. These guys are fantastic - sort of Eastern European traditional pieces mixed with gypsy-like originals. I've been a fan for ages - since I first saw them at Woodford a couple of years ago I think. As per usual, my style of dancing changed when they played and became more of a sort of belly dancer or harem dancer - I don't do the weird belly thing, but I do swivel my hips a lot. And I did so during practically their entire set. By the end, nearly the whole crowd were up and dancing - considering it was packed around the stage, that must have been a couple of hundred people! Pretty good effort I thought.

We left during the last song (saying a brief hello to the Law Student along the way), and ran over to the Warner St stage for the Neighbourhood Groove Collective who are a reggae/funk sort of band which includes Paulie B from george on bass and Nick Aggs from AfroDizziAct on lead vocals/keys/sax (?). I had wanted to see them for ages, but never got there. I really enjoyed their stuff, but they didn't have as much energy as I thought they would. Still good though - a band I'd go to see again, but probably won't go out of my way for. We started out up the front grooving away at the edge of the dancey part of the audience. The Nymph left after a couple of songs to meet this guy she's been dating who'd texted her that he'd arrived at the back of the audience, and I left about half way through the set when the little gang of 15 year olds that had surrounded me started to become too annoying. Met the Nymph's date and his friend but didn't really talk to them. I just boogied along at the back and enjoyed the band from there.

When NGC ended, I headed home and spent the rest of the night watching The Gilmore Girls and then chanel flicked until I fell asleep.

Sunday

I woke up depressingly early, but I suppose that's the price you pay by falling asleep before 9pm!

Headed into the Valley for Love Lies Bleeding at 11am. Got in there right on 11:00, but they'd already started! For some reason, most of the bands were playing 5 min early on Sunday... and it wasn't just by my watch either! Met up with the Law Student and her Repetitive Date (they've been dating for about a month now and are still not considering themselves to be "a couple") during their set. I wasn't overly impressed by them, which was a little disappointing as they had been on my "must see" list (can't remember why now...).

After that, we all pottered around the markets for a bit until Wes Davidson started at 12:20 - I stayed for 2 or 3 songs and was impressed by what I heard. He manages to combine singer/songwriter sound with pop-like catchiness quite well.

Anyway, I left because I was hoping to catch the Fairy and her parents before Jaleos Flamenco started. Which I didn't actually end up doing. I couldn't see her before, during or after the gig - there were a few people there, but she usually stands out. Haven't found out yet whether she didn't end up going or if I just missed her. Anyway, if she didn't go, she missed a great gig. They did a combination of vocal pieces that had no dancing, and dancing pieces that had no vocals. I don't really get the vocal pieces, but then what I like about them is the guitar and dance and the guitar is played down when there's vocals and the dancing is non-existant. And of course, I can't understand a word the guy is singing, so the emotion of it is completely lost on me. I do love watching Andrew Vievers do what he does with that guitar though. There were only two dancers because of limited space, but they were probably the two best of the group and managed to get the effect of the whole group across quite well.

After they finished, I headed back to the main stage to catch Halfday. I had downloaded a couple of their songs ages ago and really liked what I heard. I can't remember if I've ever seen them live, but I don't think so - I think I downloaded their songs after hearing about them somewhere. Anyway, I missed part of their set because I was starting to feel hungry and headed off to grab a bite to eat, but I saw probably all but the first 2 songs and really enjoyed it. They are pure pop - but in a good way. In the foot tapping, can't get it out of your head way. The tunes are simple - neither the guitar or bass playing is interesting to watch (and the keys player didn't seem to play much) - but they're catchy. Overall, a band I'd rather see than hear, but they did a good set. They just need to crank up the energy on-stage a bit I think. A bit like The Boat People that way.

As soon as they had played their last song, I dashed off to the Warner St stage for Palimpsest. Made it over there before they'd started, which I was happy about, and in time to grab a great spot sitting in the shade of the fence, which I was very happy about! This is the band that has Tyrone Noonan from george as the front man. I've seen them a couple of times in the past, but I don't think that the midday, outdoors setting really did them justice. They do seem to be better in a darkened venue with comfy couches, more fitting for their jazz/blues blend. Anyway, Ty of course has a great voice (very suited to jazz standards) and the 2 non-vocals (guitar and double bass) are both exceedingly good. The double bass player was slightly off his note occasionally during the high notes of his solos (were they improv?) but that is quite literally the only possible criticism I could make of this trio. The guitarist is fascinating - quick fingered and skilled and his guitar had a beautiful tone. I noticed that Ty's Mum and Dad were in the audience as well. One of the most amusing comments of the set - a girl in the bathrooms saying (loudly) to her friend: "You know that guy sounds like the guy from george. I bet he isn't though."

Ran back to the main stage once they'd finished and caught the last couple of songs from Polyvinyl. They sounded good - I'll have to make a mental note to check them out when they gig next.

Possibly the most amusing incident of the Fiesta happened during The 9th Wave. I'll get to the band in a minute, but first the incident. I was sitting near the front with the Law Student and the Repetitive Date watching the band, but also the crowd passing by on either side of the stage, when I noticed this old Asian guy standing off to the right who looked like he was fiddling with himself through his pants... and he had a hard on! I looked, looked away, then looked back... and then asked the Law Student whether what I thought I was seeing was what I was actually seeing. And it was! The Law Student then told the Repetitive Date and we all started pissing ourselves laughing while we tried not to look. It was one of those "that's disgusting but I can't help giggling" sort of moments. I think (and sort of hope) that he noticed us laughing because he disappeared after that and didn't reappear.

Anyway, the band. The 9th Wave are usually a 3-piece of guitar, vocals and drums, but they'd recruited keys for some of the songs. The guitarist and keyboards player and both from Charles Foster Kane. I think that was probably where I'd heard of them from. I certainly didn't know their music, but they were on my list of bands to check out. I really liked them - obviously the guitar and keys were good, they're both good in CFK as well - but the female lead singer is also excellent - a little like the girl from Zephyr Timbre in both look and sound, and with a lot of stage presence. I just did a bit of research to work out where I knew her from - she and the guitarist were in Tangled who I used to go and see a bit. Mystery solved. I didn't recognise him when I first saw CFK though... ah well, she does stand out a little more than he does. Anyway, their sound... hmmm... sort of like Zephyr Timbre without the rap... maybe dark pop?

Anyway, I headed home once their set had finished. I'd planned to head back in for the Resin Dogs at 6pm, but was so buggered that I stayed home and slept instead. Of course, this means that I woke up at 4:30am this morning absoluted starving, but I don't feel at all fluey today, so that's a good thing.

*whew* You all made it to here? Congratulations, I'm impressed. I'll probably keep it short for the next few posts to make it up to you!

Listening to: Machine Translations - Love on the Vine EP

I've been linked!

Last week, I was browsing a couple of sites linked from other people's blogs and came across The Uncivil Litigator, who was actually kind enough to not only welcome me to via a specific post, but to include a link to me within the post... I'm so proud! ;o)

In other news, I haven't posted for a few days because I've been down with the 'flu - very nasty strain it seems - I've been sick since Sunday and still don't feel too brilliant. One of the nice things about working in policy is that:-

(a) I was able to do quite a lot of work from home, so I'm only taking two days of sick leave instead of three; and

(b) I didn't come back to three days worth of work I now have to finish in one day - everything just gets put on hold while I'm away.

All this and they pay me well for it too. I must be mad wanting to go back to a pure legal position...

Thinking of which, I found out this morning that I have made it to interview on both of the PO4 jobs that I applied for. Unfortunately, I have the interview for one of them today!! Eeeek! Apparently, I have 15 minutes to prepare for some job specific questions and then the interview itself. Considering I'm still feeling pretty off with the 'flu, I'm not really looking forward to it! Thankfully, the other one is a couple of weeks away yet, so I have more time to prepare for it.

My Weekend

Last weekend ended up being pretty quiet. Stayed in Friday night, was supposed to go shopping on Saturday but never made it, and stayed in (bed) Sunday.

The only outing was Machine Translations on Sat night with the K couple. I really wish I had been feeling better and could have enjoyed it more. Unfortunately, the K couple were also feeling tired, so we weren't exactly bouncing around as a group. The first band, Sun Hill (yes, they are named after The Bill), turned out to be a friend of mine (sort of) and his girlfriend. It was a bit of a shock to be looking at this band and suddenly do the double take "ohmigod! That's Nick!". They were adequate, but not brilliant - nice folky pop sort of stuff, but with only a guitar and keys to back up the voices, the sound was a little thin. I think they would do a lot better with drums and bass behind them, and maybe another guitar to round out the sound.

Next up was Screemfeeder. These guys have been around the Brisbane scene for ages and, as per usual, played a tight set and got about half the crowd up dancing. Unusually for me, I just sat and tapped (my feet that is). They played a mix of old and new and I spent most of my time swivelling my head between the two guitars (who were at opposite ends of the stage with bass in between) as both were very good and they seemed to switch with who played lead and who played rhythm... though that might just have seemed that way to me because I couldn't see the 2nd guitar for a lot of the time from where I was sitting.

About half way through Machine Translations I finally got to my feet to dance. Not that they are more dancey than Screemfeeder, but the rest of the crowd had stood up and I couldn't see from where I was sitting. They were great - I like their mix of music - they remind me a little of Augie March crossed with Gersey. Not that anyone outside of Australia (and possibly a lot in Oz) are going to know what I mean by that comment anyway... Unfortunately, I really don't remember a lot about their set now - I think I was starting to get the 'flu even then. But they've won the highest accolade that this little chickadee can give - next time I'm in Skinnys, I'm going to track down one of their CDs and next time they play in Brisbane, I'll be there with bells on (unless of course, they clash with someone more important).

Anyway, best be off. I have to read through my selection criteria before my interview at lunchtime!

Listening to: nothing - my ears are blocked!

the latest date, my short attention span & weekend plans

So, went on another date with a new guy yesterday for lunch. This was the guy that seemed great by email - chatty, funny, intelligent...

Unfortunately, in person he's intense, nowhere near as amusing and has the most unfortunate nose - I had trouble looking at him because whenever I did, my focus always seemed to centre on his nose. It's not that it's particularly big or anything - it just has this odd shape with a kind of bulby bit at the end... anyway, don't think I'll be seeing him again!

I think I'm kind of losing interest in the whole dating thing already - will keep seeing the one's that I've already seen and am interested in, but I don't think I'll be actively out there and answering emails or stuff anymore. There are two reasons for this:-

(a) My internet bill is getting rather huge because of all the time I'm spending on my online email account;

(b) I have a short attention span - been there, tried it - had fun, but now I'm over it.

Thinking of my short attention span, I've changed my "Listening to" font at the end of my posts - changed it for a couple of past posts and have changed the template for future posts. Basically, I found this website that explains HTML colours and I started fiddling, looking for a colour that wouldn't stand out too much against the rest of the page, but was a bit different from the rest of the text. Anyway, I like it... for the moment anyway! ;o)

I can't believe it's Friday again already! And I seem to have achieved nothing this week. Once again, big weekend plans. Well, not as big as previous weekends, but still lots of stuff to do. Planning on a quiet night tonight - it's been a pretty big week and I probably need it. Tomorrow I really should do some shopping - I have a couple of birthdays coming up and I have no idea what to get! I'd also like to catch up with T&S and the bub at some stage - haven't seen the bub in a couple of weeks (they change so fast at that age!) and haven't had a chance to really talk to T&S for a while either.

Ohh... The Luckiest just came on - I love that song... see this is what I want - a guy who could write a song like that about me! And people say that I have high expectations! *g*

Anyway, back to the plans - Sat night I'm going to Machine Translations with the K couple and then Sunday I was going to check out some of the Jazz and Blues Festival at the Roma St Parklands. For the first time in a while, I have no plans for Sunday night and I think I'll keep it that way - actually get a decent night's sleep before I start the working week again!

*sigh* Back to work. I probably should try to accomplish something this week.

Listening to: Ben Folds - Live

New name & The Meadows

I have been reading some other law blogs and wanted to comment on them - problem is, you can only do this as "anonymous" or by signing in. Seeing as my posting name was just "Me", I figured this wasn't going to be very helpful when commenting on other people's blogs, so I've changed it to OLS, it could have just been OL (without the ...) and left out any reference to the swear word at the end, but I'm in government - it just doesn't sound right unless the acronym has three letters.

Caught up with the law student last night to see The Meadows at the Troubadour. I was pretty keen to see them again after seeing their support at the speedstar* gig at the Tivoli, and even more keen when I heard that Kieran Waters and the Young Casuals were supporting. I don't remember if I posted about them before - they're the guys that were giving away copies of their CD to anyone who joins the mailing list for the band. Not a bad little marketing ploy that. Anyway, I've been listening to the CD and they're really good, so was keen to see them again as well.

They were as good as I'd remembered... both of them were actually. KW&YC have a slightly different line-up from the last time I saw them as their regular guitarist has apparently returned from Europe. They're kind of folk-rock I guess - think Paul Kelly crossed with Powderfinger and you'd have some idea. I settled back into my comfy couch and thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was a smallish crowd and obviously a lot of the bands friends were in the audience as there was a lot of banter with the crowd, much of it in-jokes (but not so obscure that the rest of us couldn't get them, which is nice).

Kieran himself has a nice voice and generally plays rhythym guitar as well - he also stretches his wings and plays keys every so often. He has a slightly startled look when singing, but it's not too distracting. The lead guitar held my attention mostly - loved his work - he seemed to make complicated finger-work easy. The bass player dances like Paul McCartney back when he had a moptop, but actually plays bass like it's a bass and not a 4-string guitar, so he holds -my- affections for that alone! He also throws some funky little riffs in there occassionally, so he got blasted with my attention span a few times. I mostly couldn't see the drummer from where I was sitting as he was usually hidden by Kieran, so couldn't really comment on him other than that he manages to drum and sing harmony at the same time, which I understand from some muso friends is actually quite difficult (they're all boys though - and you know what guys are like with multi-tasking).

The Meadows are apparently on the same label as speedstar*, and you can see why. Their styles are so similar you could almost use exactly the same band description (emotional guitar-driven pop - though the marketing people would probably use more words than that). Except that The Meadows might just be a little bit better. The lead singer's voice is almost perfect - he just seems to effortlessly hit the note right every time, and without that slight nasal tone that the lead singer of speedstar* can sometimes get. He's no Katie Noonan, his voice sounds more real and grounded than hers, but he sings with a passion thats affecting. He also seems to have developed that home-grown charm act with an ingenious grin that the girls like (the ones behind me were vocally impressed). I think he'll go far - especially if he's the primary songwriter of the band, which I suspect he is.

Unfortunately, the rest of the band are not as good. The guitarist plays well, but has this phony "rock god" stage persona which just makes me laugh and I can't take him seriously. The drummer has a cute accent (maybe Canadian?) but makes drumming look like so much effort that I wince when I watch him. The bass player does his job effectively and efficiently, but the bass lines are pretty boring, so nothing really exciting to watch there. Mind you, that's a pretty harsh summation of a band that played well, got my feet tapping and is 100% on a lot of those gigging around Brisbane now. It's just that the lead guy stood out. Which is maybe a good thing? *shrugs*

Anyway, I'd better finish this and head off for lunch - got a date with this guy I've been emailing a lot, who seems great on email. Will post either this arvo or tomorrow with the verdict.

Listening to: george - got a bunch of their stuff going on random...