Saturday 20th October – Server Upgrade
Morning
I got up relatively early, and Bronwen and I drove to Francy’s Patisserie at Rosalie for veggie pasties, stopping at what appeared to be a large school fete, and then driving to Umart, where I bought two Toshiba (formely Hitachi) 3TB hard drives for $148 each. We then drove home, and I walked (which was a bad idea, as it was about a million degrees... and that’s in the shade) and got a haircut.
After my rather dashing haircut, I put one of the 3TB hard drives in the server, only to find that it doesn’t support UEFI and hence can’t boot off a hard drive over 2TB. This caused many problems, and eventually I had to leave its existing hard drives, and the new ones, in it—so now I’ve two 1.5TB hard drives and two 3TB hard drives (along with the removable backup drive) in it, all mirrored. Bronwen’s Dad also came over and Bronwen and he spent some time re-caulking some of the shower, which has meant I can’t shower in it for 24 hours.
Afternoon
Bronwen and I drove to Toowong Sizzler, where we both ate too much. After, we drove to Bronwen’s parents’ place, dropped off the family heirloom spanner, and then drove home again to languish in the heat.
Night
Having languished in the heat enough, I went to bed. In case I’d forgot to mention, it seems that today is the first proper hot day—the first day when it’s not just hot in the sun, but is still hot in the shade, and at night—this summer. Needless to say, it’s awful and winter is much, much better.
Sunday 21st October – Bogans, Scarecrows & Cedar Creek
Morning
I again got up relatively early (at least for a Sunday). It is another immensely hot day. Bronwen and I drove to Maz’s, and from there to the Burrito Bar, where we had tacos (and, in my case, a banana milk) for breakfast (or, in Bronwen’s case, lunch). After breakfast we drove to a servo to get petrol, meeting some zombies and finding out that today is the zombie walk day. While it’s far too hot to bother going to photograph anyone, we were a little annoyed to have not realised it was on—since the closing of the Our Brisbane site, it’s just too difficult to find out what’s on in the area.
After refuelling, we drove to Mount Tamborine, stopping first at Cedar Creek. The cars lining every parkable part of the road gave us a bit of an idea that it might be busy. Also, the properties near the “people live here for peace and quiet” sign who were selling their peace and quiet for $5 per car park reinforced the growing idea that it may, perhaps, be quite busy. Amazingly, we got to the actual car park (which was, unsurprisingly, full) just as someone else was leaving and managed to get a park.
We walked down to the various rock pools and waterfalls, but sadly, they were all full of Bogans. Finally, we settled on the second last rock pool, accessed by walking past a “Do not walk past here” sign and seemingly the least busy, and found a little rock with no one else on it. Maz and I sat down to cool off while Bronwen went for a swim, but within minutes, a “family” of Bogans—perhaps 5 overweight women and an odd number of thin, tattooed men, along with a multitude of presumably-related small children—came and sat literally on the same rock, started smoking and put all their smelly children into the tiny pool we’d been dabbling our toes into, so we had to leave.
Afternoon
After Cedar Creek Rock Pools, we drove through North Tamborine—which was just finishing off its Scarecrow Festival. Once again, I’d not known this was on, and would have gone and checked it out had I known. After buying a drink at the local IGA, we continued on to Cameron Falls, and had a nice walk (it having cooled dramatically as the evening drew nearer) through a rainforest and along a creek to a lookout over the falls—which barely had any water flowing over them at this time of year—and then spent the evening waiting for the sunrise eating chips in the park at the start of the walk.
Night
After the sunset failed to materialise into much else than a dull glow, we drove back to Brisbane, and to Maz’s place. From there, we—along with Maz’s flatmate—drove to Halim’s Indian Taj for dinner.
Start time: 10/21/2012 13:06 Finish time: 10/21/2012 19:07 Distance: 144.3 km (03:58) Moving time: 02:39 Average speed: 36.4 km/h Avg. Speed Mov.: 54.4 km/h Max. Speed: 117.8 km/h Minimum altitude: -11 m Maximum altitude: 562 m Rise speed: 1226.2 m/h Fall speed: -2073.4 m/h Elevation gain: 1948 m Elevation loss: -2076 m Rise time: 01:35 Fall time: 01:00 Download KML/KMZ (Google Earth)
Monday 22nd October – Niall Leaves & Clint Arrives
Day
I worked. It was Niall’s last day. We had a work lunch to celebrate (if that’s the right word? Mourn perhaps?) his departure.
Night
I drove home, had a quick shower, and rushed back to Rosalie, where I met Bronwen, Clint and Maz at the Burrito Bar—which managed to get our orders mostly wrong. But it was good to catch up with Clint again and hear a little about his adventures. After dinner, I drove to Bronwen’s work, put the bike carrier on, and drove her and her bike home.
Late Night
I stayed up very, very late creating the weekend’s journal article.
Tuesday 23rd October – Late
Morning
I awoke to find, to my horror, that it was nearly half past nine. I showered and got ready very quickly, and managed to get to work before ten.
Lunch
Gavan and I drove to Govinda’s for lunch, and then forgot to bring back a takeaway meal for Lachlan. The fruit and veggie shop next door to Govinda’s has shut down.
Wednesday 24th October – Govinda’s
Day
I worked.
Night
After work I rushed into town, parking in the Valley, and walked to Govinda’s. They had run out of drink! It was a disaster! And then they refilled the drink and all was good.
Thursday 25th October – Amanda “Muffins”
Day
I worked. I also met Amanda “Muffins” for lunch at Govinda’s—she has started a job nearby. After lunch I ordered a Dell Vostro 3560 for Sarah—$899 after $300 cash off. It was the cheapest laptop with a 1920 pixel wide screen that I could find. Annoyingly, at the start of the order process it was prebuilt for fast shipping, and by the end of the order process, they had sold out and it now says it’s going to take three weeks.
Night
Bronwen stayed at her parents’ place to go cycling early tomorrow, so I stayed up late.
Friday 26th October – Anthony Laffan’s Comedy Hypnosis Show
Day
I worked, going to work an hour early, and leaving an hour early. I also had lunch with Amanda “Muffins” again.
Night
I left work an hour early, drove home, then drove to the Albion Comedy Club and Restaurant. Despite being funnelled through a series of one-way roads, resulting in an unnecessary loop around the block, I did eventually find parking, and caught up with Greg and his wife who had conveniently already got nearly all the way to the start of the queue. We watched “Anthony Laffan’s Comedy Hypnosis Show” and had a yummy dinner. The show was quite interesting, and I’m unable to decide if it was “faked” or not.
If it was “faked”, the people were remarkably good actors—perhaps implausibly so. Then again, that’s how acts work—they go to more effort than someone would think plausible. On the other hand, if they were actually hypnotised... I find it hard to believe people can be hypnotised so easily. I’m conflicted.