Sunday 20th March – Netbook
Morning
I finally found a netbook deal on ozbargain’s, at about the same time as Bronwen decided we should buy one, so we drove down to Clive Anthony’s, who had a HP MINI 110-3538TU Netbook for the same $313.20 that jb-hifi (their parent company) had it, and which Officeworks had pre-emptively price-matched. Considering it’s an Atom N550, and seems as “fully featured” as any other 10.1” netbook, I think it’s a great price, so we bought it.
Afternoon
After our netbook purchase, Bronwen and I drove over to Maz’s, as neither Maz nor I had eaten anything yet today, and walked to the eatery at Indooroopilly, where Subway and the lolly shop took lots of my money.
Evening
We spent the evening wasting our time installing and configuring the netbook, which came with Windows 7 Starter. I foolishly thought Starter was a cut-back, more efficient operating system for netbooks, but no—Microsoft being who they are, it’s just a cut-back operating system, annoyingly missing things which I want… so I’ll install Windows 7 Ultimate on it tomorrow.
Night
Maz and I drove out to the Confectionary Warehouse, then back to Halim’s for a nice curry dinner with Bronwen, then back to Maz’s where we watched “Megamind”.
Monday 21st March – Malaysian Food
Morning
I actually managed to get up semi-not-late, and do semi-useful things: I installed Windows 7 Ultimate on the Windows 7 Starter installed netbook, which so far has taken all day.
Afternoon
Bronwen and I vroom-vroomed to Sunnybank where we had some Malaysian food, sadly interspersed with a lot of evil fungi.
Night
I dropped Bronwen off at Maz’s work, so she and Maz could go rollerblading, and I then drove on to Raymond’s place, bought a drink, and had a look at his new bike. Shortly after, Maz called to say his rollerblades had broken, and I picked him and Bronwen up from South Bank, drove Bronwen to her parents’ place, and myself and Maz on to Maz’s, where I stayed late.
Tuesday 22nd March – Inoculations & Battle: Los Angeles
Morning
I awoke quite tired, but mostly alive, and began the long and arduous task of getting myself into clothes, the car, and onto the road.
Afternoon
After driving to Bronwen’s parents’ place, and having a milkshake breakfast, Bronwen and I drove to Toowong where Bronwen had a watch battery replaced, then on to my work where I dropped off some clothes and said hello. After saying goodbye to work people again, we drove to DFO, where Bronwen bought a money belt and a travel adaptor. We then drove to South Bank and walked across to Govinda’s for lunch. Sadly, their menu seems to have changed, and I rarely like the food anymore. I used to always like it.
4pm
Bronwen and I went to the travel doctor and had a bit over a thousand dollars’ worth of diseases pumped into ourselves in some kind of attempt to prevent those same diseases later. I’m not impressed—I had to ask if there were any side effects, and was told that, other than a possible fever about ten days later, there wasn’t. However, that outright isn’t true—while the side effects may be unlikely, there are many, and they are potentially serious, and I wouldn’t have been told about any had I not asked, and even after asking, still wasn’t correctly advised. I think that’s a serious lapse of duty and very unprofessional from a doctor who supposedly specialises in this. Then, to make things worse, Bronwen found out while climbing that one of the tablets we’d been given actually neutralises another she has—and, despite clearly advising the doctor of the circumstances, she was not advised of this.
Evening
I drove home while Bronwen went climbing. It has been extremely hot all day, and still is. Hot and humid. Unpleasant.
Night
Bronwen cooked pasta, then we drove into South Bank and watched “Battle: Los Angeles”. It was quite exciting and took my mind off the surprisingly painful reaction I’ve had in my arms, but was let down by the absurdity of the American—their “reality” is not quite the same as ours—or, I believe to their peril, theirs. And now, it’s once again past midnight.
Wednesday 23rd March – Complaining
Morning
I woke up in the morning for a change. It’s already getting hot. I skipped breakfast because I’m lazy, and added a few things to my going-overseas shopping list.
Afternoon
We went and saw the travel doctor and complained, as we’d been prescribed medication which we believed conflicted with other medication. The doctor wasn’t available, but another doctor told us that, in his opinion, we’d be fine.
Thursday 24th March – Lumix Camera
Midday
I drove into town and had a pleasant lunch with Christine at Emporium Wagamama.
Afternoon
I rushed home after lunch with Christine, and Bronwen and I drove to the Digital Camera Warehouse and bought a Lumix FT10 ($265) as a waterproof, easy-to-carry, point-and-shoot “backup” camera. We then drove to Indooroopilly via Bronwen’s parents’ place, and I rushed to the 3/Vodafone/Vodafail store to find out how to stop paying for my phone, while Bronwen rushed off to banks and similar exciting things. Oh, and I got a really nice milkshake.
Night
Then, as all the books say, I dropped Bronwen off at her parents’ again, picked up Maz, drove to Umart, and bought a 2 GB stick of RAM for the netbook and put it in while still in the store to see if it worked, which it did, and then drove to Maz’s place, walked to Woolworths for “dinner” (chips and iced coffee), and Maz got a virus.
Later Night
I drove Bronwen home from her parents’ while Maz rebuilt his virus-ed computer, then drove back to Maz’s and made a backup of the new netbook and messed around being geeky until it was quite late.
Friday 25th March – Communist Go Cards
Morning
Bronwen and I drove to Paddington, parked the car there, and caught a bus in to town. They no longer have “return” or “daily” tickets—only communist “go cards” and one-way tickets, and a one-way ticket costs $4.60! For a five minute bus journey! That’s insane. Once in town, Bronwen and I rushed around, visited the doctor again to complain—having found that, after being told Wednesday that we’d be fine, the medication actually states on it that it’s incompatible with the other medication. After putting our complaint in writing, we got a lot more attention, saw the manager, and an experienced nurse, who talked to various doctors, found documentation, and sorted everything out.
Evening
I visited Maz and ended up staying up until 5 AM.
Saturday 26th March – Tom
Morning
Tom came over, and Bronwen, Tom and I went and had coffee and a chat at a local café.
Midday
Bronwen and I drove to Garden City and did some nearly-last-minute shopping.
Afternoon
We did some nearly-last-minute sorting things out.
Night
I drove Bronwen to her parents’ place, and continued on to Kieran’s, where Maz, Kieran and I had dinner and spent the evening.