J’s bday was on Friday, awesome fun. Of the times spent at Pontoon this year, every night is always a good night. Except that one time when I didn’t drink. lol. Actually screw that, you can always have fun w/ frieeendz.

Anyway, to the people asking me hows life/things/everything/work — work is work, apart from me going into specifics, I can’t really get comfortable explaining the behind-the-scenes intricacies working at McGrath entails without boring you to death after the first 5 words.

But anyway, good weather, good company!

24/25th December

Christmas @ the javier residence

26-27th December:

Newcastle with the fam — buffet, beaches, views

27th Dec:

Annual LK Outting — ~16 asians, Arisun, Tin Tin, Capitol (because its still kinda cool to take photos in those booths)

2nd Jan:

Americans arrive!!! aka Kim and Mike — BBQ at Celine’s house, monopoly deal

3rd Jan:

Bondi lunch with the Americans + friends, mums bday @ Crinitis, Castle Hill

4th Jan:

Burwood dinner with Kim, IJ and Celine + Aqua Golf — hit the furthest, I should’ve won something

5th Jan

Luna Park w/ Americans + friends followed by Mizuya.

Kim walking towards the end of Luna Park, “is this it?”.  Yes Kim.  That is it. Our Luna Park doesn’t even compare to even ONE of the themed areas at Disneyland.

6th Jan

Pre drinks at Teylans then clubbing @ Pontoon with Americans minus Celine cos shes a loser, meeting Jasmine’s old friend and spilling ice cream in Jasmine’s car.

I like the part where our eyes look awesome.

7th Jan

HARDY PARTY @ Cattai National Park.  SUPER FUN. Wish I stayed :( Went kayaking, fishing (caught some seaweed), made a fire, chilled, talked, kicked a ball around, drove Joel home with Kangaroos on the road, made him open the gate with the combo lock hoping a kangaroo wouldn’t jump into my car.

Lates.

8th Jan

Jamberoo with the Americans + friends + other friends I didn’t know.  AWESOME FUN. Started to rain a bit, but we were gonna get wet anyway.  I controlled the action alright.  Dinner @ Diggers where I had the biggest schnitzel ever. It was the best.

10th Jan

Michael’s (1/2 of the Americans) bday @ Red Spoon, Castle Hill then cake + pavlova @ Teylans. Cake was awesome, it had cake puff (?) basketballs that I didn’t get to try :(

11-12th Jan

Network turns to shit at work. Series of Happy events turns to hell when the phone lines for one of the offices turn inside out, emails aren’t happening and I’m being pressured by some guy who asks for his laptop when I forgot to call him to tell him its not ready (my bad but seriously, had ZERO time to call anyone I needed to).

/end Update.

Been a long time coming, and having met Kim at WYD 3.5 years ago, it really is awesome the friendships lasted this long for people in the states. It really sucks though that I never got to hang out with them during the day because of work, but I hope they have fun. To Kim and Mike: Thanks for coming, yo! :D See you guys in the states. :)

November 18-22

Friday

The Tram brothers from Perth came down from Perth.  History with these guys is that I’ve been playing online games with them for almost 5 years now and they decided to come down and meet the other Sydney dudes.

Ivy Bar With the group, and since the guy at the back works there, we got a lot of drinks for cheap.

Some very douchey moves made by the guy with the el-scrappo hair at the back:

HEY, WINGMAN.

OK! *dances with both of them*

Hey man, what are you doing?

Fark off, mate.

…

Also after I left with Chris and Nick some drama happened between the other guys and randoms there. lol. Top crowd.

Went home after.

Saturday:

Hurricanes then Star City.  We waited about 1.5 hours to get here because we made a pretty late decision to eat here, but we got a seat and saw the fireworks then headed to what is now, The Star.  Lots of changes, drank a bit then headed home.

Dragon Punch shenanigans again.  I did this with the UTS guys last time we were here, so I thought it’d be funny to see how we went now with the gamers…

Me:

Tom:

….and Chris.  Is this guy really in the force?

Sunday:

UFC then German Place.  Watched some UFC at a bar, then drove out west to some German place at Luddenham.  It was a damn trek to drive there, but the meat platter is well worth it — so much that we didn’t even finish it.

Monday:

Go Karts then Max Brennar.  Went to Go Karts at Eastern Creek.  This was way better than Minto Karts because

1. the karts were faster

2. the course was longer

3. I actually placed well.

That’s not to say I am the next Michael Schumacher, but I came 2nd amongst the gamers.  The person, he-who-cannot-be-named-because-I-forgot-who-came-last, got a lot of shit afterwards. 

And after Go karts was were I began to get sick.  Greaaaat.  Afterwards, headed to Max Brennar at Blacktown.

Tuesday:

Paintball @ Action Paintball, Rouse Hill.  I started coughing after go karts, and paintball in this weather, which was humid at first, then started to rain, just made everything worse.  Luckily this time, I didn’t get shot in the mouth, rather the head, which still cained.  And let me tell you, wearing glasses whilst paintball adds another layer of fog.  So when my goggles fog, and I’m sweating like a mf in the Sahara, my glasses will provide 5% vision. 

All I had to see through was the small patch of clear glass at the bottom of my mask so it looked like I was looking up whilst shooting blindly.

Friday, November 25:

Ate at the Braza Churrascaria @ Darling Harbour.  Omg, because I was feeling sick, I ate about $5 worth of my $49 meal. WASTE. The food was so nice but I just couldn’t eat it!! I definitely have to go back here sometime to get my moneys worth and enjoy it…

Saturday, November 26:

Stereosonic.  Got in, got split up with everyone except Simon and Van. Found everyone again in the Main stage.

Avicii, which I primarily came for was amazing as I had expected.

Eventually found James’ group. Walked around with Peter for an hour-ish then saw Jasmine/Simon.  Fast forward to Jimmy chundering, then left. Walked around for 1.5 hours finding a way to Ricky’s house thanks to Jimmy being delusional (or something), we were being lead by Dr Phil on drugs.  Got lost, ended up walking in a massive circle and no cab would pick us up. Got so frustrated, so we called Simon who was also having dramas with Nam not turning up after waiting over an hour. lol. Eventually got a lift off a nice group of indians (taxi owner) who was about to drop his friends home, but also took us back to my car.

Sunday, 27th November:

HP Exhibit with Celine!  :) Fair few people dressed up.  Walking through the exhibition made me want to go to LA when they bring HP World there in a few years. YAyeyr.

…………………

From here everything seems a bit hazy…

I remember just hanging with Celine, games night at her house (or was it a movie night?).

Thursday, December 8

Had to the McGrath Christmas Party at the Waterbar, Woolloomooloo (however you spell that horrible excuse for a name). I met a fair few people, including 1 particular waitress. lol.  It doesn’t matter what I said to her, but I got a pic. HAHA (inside joke with workmates)

*looking at mutual friends*

Me: JUSTIN ACOSTA? 

Her: You’re from the west?

Me: Yeah… cool thanks, see you around.

Do people form the south look down upon those from the west or something?

Anyway, it was a fun night. Having it on a Thursday means dreading work the next day because I still had to come in. -_____-

Saturday, 11 December

UTS Kids Christmas Pool Party.  Had this at Tims house, maybe went a little overboard with the nerf guns at his place, but it was fun :D Also opened our KK presents and I got a Darth Vader bobble head.  Still not opened, but I think I WILL open it, because I really want to put it on my desk at work so I show some personality there. Twas a fun night, should be an annual thing.

…

AND THAT BRINGS US TO NOW!

Presents bought.. well most of them. Still need to get more after Christmas unfortunately…

So I haven’t really blogged in a while.

Lately..

• Swimming with the UTS kids
• Work
• M’s bday at Bicentennial Park - which turned into Cranium Day at our house
• Cranium Night with the LK at K’s house
• Work
• Sleep
• T’s surprise birthday dinner @ Noodle Markets
• Noodle Markets round 2 with half of LK, + Royce + Viet w/ French accent (lolz)
• Work

Cranium is a bloody absolute blast. It’s trivia, pictionary, charades in one, and the shish that people come up with is hi-larious. I had the word “Mannequin” and I had to let others guess the word, using only play-doh.  Bearing in mind the hint was “thing”.  I could not for the life of me get them to guess it was a “thing” in the shape of a person.  So I tried making clothes and dressing it up… ran a pole up its ass to show that its a statue, but still no one could get it. lol.

Anyway, my fitness has been dropping. I really wanna get rid of my gut.  Only doing pushups at the moment at night when I get home from work. That is the extent of my exercise, apart from sitting in a chair all day. Need to bring out the bike again and go around Glenwood!

Yesterday I picked up my side skirts for my car from Talon Body Styling w/ C, then ate at Rashays. I wanted to eat everything from the menu. We ordered bruschetta pizza, chicken schnitzel and chips w/ dianne sauce, salad, freshly squeezed watermelon jooooce. I was so keen on dessert but I couldn’t eat anymore. And this would mark the first time I’ve been to Liverpool!

I also recently ordered 2 items from Catch of the Day. One was 2 pairs of earphones for my workmate. They came in fine.  The other were $1 Havaianas that they claimed would be a “unisex” style and size.  I imagined at LEAST the plain colours, I was secretly hoping for black because I wanted a black pair.

… I got a black pair alright… with some Season-greeting-esque gold and silver shit all over it.

Anyway, I gave those to mum since she always uses my pair at home. At least they were $1…. + $6 shipping.

Excited for:

• Installing side-skirts + v-lip onto my car. October 22
• First Lancer western region meet-up. October 22
• J’s Fresh Prince of Bel Air themed party. October 22
• Inaugural “Show & Shine” Lancer Photoshoot @ Olympic Park. October 29
• C’s birthday @ Beach house. November 4-6
• Tram brothers arrive in Sydney. Gamer meet-up ftw! lolol. November 18
• Go karts + Paintball w/ the gamers.