Monday 9^th January – Being a Mechanic

Day

It was very, very hot. 38° in the city apparently, and a little hotter than that under my collar.

Afternoon

After the hottest part of the day had passed I went and took the front door of my car apart, managing to break a screwdriver and not having the right torx-bit to get the door lock entirely out, so had to do micro-surgery on it while it was inside the door—which is a little complex when the part being replaced is spring-loaded. However, after much sweat, I managed to swap out the evil broken lock actuator gear and put in the new eBay one (at $18 including shipping, it’s a little cheaper than the approximately $200 Ford one—and according to the eBay seller, also stronger).

Night

Bronwen and I drove to Maz’s, and from there to Chez Tessa, where we had dinner.

Tuesday 10^th January – The Great Outdoors

Midday

I drove into town and had a very yummy lunch at Govinda’s with Bronwen. It is yet another incredibly hot day—walking through South Bank nearly melted me. The kiddies pool is incredibly busy, though there’s fewer adults there than on a normal day for some reason. On the way back, one of the kiddies pools had been taped off and evacuated. It’s best not to know why I imagine.

Evening

I moved—from the lounge room, to the great outdoors. Of course, nothing is that simple, and I found that my Wi-Fi didn’t really work, so had to rejig its position, and of course none of the cables were quite long enough, but now it seems to work and I’m outside, in the shade, under a fan, listening to the birds squabbling.

Night

I stayed up late finishing off a quote.

Wednesday 11^th January – Hot but Relaxing

Day

I had a quiet, relaxing—albeit very hot—day.

Night

I again stayed up late, again finishing off a quote.

Thursday 12^th January – Common Belief

Common belief: The belief that there was nothing and nothing happened to nothing and then nothing magically exploded for no reason, creating everything and then a bunch of everything magically rearranged itself for no reason what so ever into self-replicating bits which then turned into dinosaurs. Makes perfect sense.

Friday 13^th January – Working

Morning

I got up early and drove back to work at Mettro—for the first time this year. My day was uneventful.

Night

Bronwen made pasta, and I ate pasta—coincidence?

Saturday 14^th January – Solar Panel Cleaning

Morning

I slept in, then had a lazy morning doing nothing, before driving into the city to have breakfast/lunch at Govinda’s and go to 99 Bikes for Bronwen to look at bike shoes. We met some people filming a car ad.

Afternoon

Bronwen cleaned some gutters and her solar panels, while I didn’t. That pretty much sums up the afternoon. It then became evening, and we ate garlic bread and beans.

Night

I drove Bronwen to her parents’, so she could go riding absurdly early in the morning. I then dropped past the IGA for an iced coffee on the way home, and that, my friends, is the true story of why I am still awake at half past two.

Sunday 15^th January – Eating

Far Too Early in the Morning

Bronwen called and woke me up, and I had to get up and drive to her parents’ place for breakfast. Fortunately, by the time I had got there, I was awake—and breakfast was very yummy. After breakfast we drove out to an ex-bicycle-shop-owner’s place, where Bronwen bought some bike shoes and I bought some bike handlebar ends. Apparently his shop had been shut down by road work out at the airport and as the government wouldn’t assist with any relocation fees, he’d had to close it, and was now selling the remainder of the stuff from his house on the odd weekend here and there.

Afternoon

We walked down to Woolworths, watching the impending gloom gathering, and ominously predicting that it’d rain on us—which of course, once we came out of the shops after having exchanged virtual money for actual goods, it did; it was raining quite heavily, and Bronwen—now being the proud owner of some still-alive fish at work—wanted to collect the rainwater (apparently fish are as fussy as vodka drinkers) so instead of waiting for the rain to abate like sane people, we had to rush home through it. It was quite cold, and I got wet.

Night

Bronwen and I drove to Halim’s, where we had a vegetable biryani. Almost the entire restaurant was one long table of similarly aged Asians. On the drive home, it rained quite heavily—but fortunately we lived.

Monday 16^th January – Working

Day

I worked.

Tuesday 17^th January – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Day

I worked.

Night

I picked Bronwen up from the city and we drove home, bought pizza, ate pizza, drove back to the city, parked at the cinemas at South Bank, and watched “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (US Version)”. It wasn’t that bad, though I’d be interested to see the original version, as I assume it’s better—this one did seem a bit “Hollywood”.

Wednesday 18^th January – Govindas

Day

I went to work, and had lunch at Govinda’s with Gavan.

The internet also went black to protest against SOPA, though seeing as we’re only a small country on the wrong side of the world, most of the world’s 18^th wasn’t actually today.

Protest SOPA. Only use, install, watch, eat pirated things! Also shoplift frequently to support police recruitment and wage increases!

Night

Bronwen stayed at her parents’ place, learning to ride with clip-in shoes.

Thursday 19^th January – Nandos

Day

I went to work, and finished off the site I was working on—it has now gone live. Unfortunately that also means there’s no work for me tomorrow—though fortunately that means I don’t have to get up early, and can relax and (theoretically at least) get some of the things I’ve been meaning to do done.

Night

Bronwen and I drove over to Maz’s, dropping off a spare ADSL modem as his new one isn’t working well. We went to Nandos at St. Lucia for dinner—enjoying their power failure, and not enjoying their almost total inability to understand English. I’m sorry, it’s not racist—but if you can’t understand English adequately, then you should be fired. Bronwen and I ended up with veggie Pitas (which, while not what we ordered, were at least still vegetarian) and Maz ended up with something he didn’t order. We ate it, but in future I’ll be refusing to pay for other’s mistakes.

Friday 20^th January – Relaxing

Day

I had a quiet day at home, doing very little.