Houston, we have a Maton!

Thoroughly enjoyed my sleep-in today!!! Woke up at 11am and had a slice of sponge cake for breakky before heading off to Miranda with Jon jon! Went to the Westfield (aka temple of materialism) there and had lunch, before going to EB games to check out Command & Conquer Generals and its expansion pack - $19.95 each! When we got our first computer in 1995 (Pentium 100 - we had it for 10 years!), we bought our first computer game Command & Conquer - the revolutionary strategy game of its time! A decade later, it's only got better and I've yet to play it but looks good!!! After this, picked up John Farnham's "The Voice" double CD for the bargain price of $9.99 at HMV cos I really like one of his songs called No Ordinary World.

Then hopped across the road to the Shire Music Centre for the second time this month to check out the Maton Miranda guitar and see if Jon wanted it as his belated 21st present. A really nice guy called Todd helped us out and even though he didn't play the guitar or know much about guitars, it was pleasant dealing with him. Turns out he's a Christian himself and produced 2 of Nathan Tasker's albums - Come See the Morning and A Look Inside! Had a couple of strums and umm'd and ahh'd about various Maton models before we settled on the Miranda model:

"This is our own design Maton Miranda, available only from Shire Music! Based around the 225 series this guitar has been seriously upgraded with an AP5 Pickup in place of the standard AP4. We have also added Herringbone binding, keyhole headstock with facing and a light honey stain to the body. The Miranda looks like a guitar costing twice the price! Of course solid spruce top, quality fittings etc are all as per what you'd expect from the Maton products!"

Another salesman looked at it in admiration and said it all: "It's beautiful!". Also got their guitar extras pack which includes hard case, 2 sets of strings, strap, lead, guitar stand, maintenance package, 1 yr extra warranty and $99 worth of SMC vouchers! Very happy about that!

So yay - Houston, we have a Maton!

Bowl and Grill!

Went out tonight to Darling Harbour for dinner with Themis, Chuck, Kenny, Khoung, Jaz and Jenny! Picked up Jaz and found an awesome parking spot on Kent St in this work zone so didn't have to pay yeah yeah! Only thing was, whilst I was parking and aligning my car to the kerb, a fire truck pulled up behind me and wanted to kinda take my parking spot (since it was the end of the row of cars). Everytime I inched forward a bit to adjust my parking, the stoopid fire truck inched closer to my behind (not wanting to poke its backside into the intersection behind I suppose...) !!! Annoyed, I just waited to see what the fire truck would do. It wasn't as if there were any obvious fire/cat stuck in a tree etc emergency around the area so what on earth was this fire truck ramming up my behind for??! Was waiting waiting with Jaz in the car a while and turned my head around to notice there was a Subway on the other side of the road. Mmmm... Subway...my stomach wondered (aka Homer Simpson)...until lo and behold I noticed a uniformed fireman inside the Subway buying dinner!!! Mannnnnnnnnn it was sooooo annoying!!! Here I was stuck in my car, which I still had to properly park, but couldn't because a fire truck was practically kissing my car because a fireman wanted to buy Subway for dinner!!!!! I mean, being a fire truck, it could've legitamately parked just about anywhere...it could've stopped in the middle of the road and no one would say anything but of all places it had to stop right behind me!!! And boy that guy must've bought all the Subway rolls in that shop cause he was taking ages and ages and all the while my stomach was grumbling louder and louder!!! Eventually his order was complete and I could park properly. Have to say though, since it was free, it was worth the wait!

Bowl and Grill is situated in the old Sega Megaworld complex next to Gloria Jeans and where that Sports Bar previously was. Dinner was nice and it was good catching up with the gang! Had a nice chicken and bacon burger with fries and salad at a very reasonable price! Portions were so huge I couldn't finish!!! Queenie dropped by surprisingly on the way to dinner with her friends. We didn't actually bowl for some reason...I guess it wasn't exactly cheap although it's only $5 extra to bowl if you dine on Mon-Wed.

After dinner, we headed back to the east to Charles' place to watch a dvd! We hired out Team America on the way back. Very very funny although it could've done without some bits...! Had this part in it where a very cute puppet North Korean president (the bad guy) sings this soliloquy called "I'm so ronery" (ronery = lonely!!!). Very very cute even though he was the bad guy! Kinda fell asleep towards the end, not because of the movie but because I was just buggered...!

St Mark's Houseparty 2006!!!

Wow! We had our inaugural St Mark's Combined Houseparty last weekend at Stanwell Tops Conference Centre! It went from Friday night to Sunday arvo and was packed with inspiring talks, challenging bible studies, and heaps of compulsory FUN!!!

The venue itself was awesome! I'd even go so far as to say it was the best camp site so far that I've been to! Rooms all with ensuites, nice new facilities, tennis courts, nature trails...and most importantly...it was cheap!!!

Derrick Powell, the archdeacon of our diocese, was the speaker for the weekend. He spoke about what church is, the history behind it and how we can improve things in our church!

Fun time included a brutally competitive soccer match (during which Jenny got a black eye!) and an awesome game of capture the flag at night between the guys and the girls, which ended in a draw with both teams claiming each other's flags at the same time! Definitely has to become a houseparty tradition!

Okey dokey, lunch break over! Back to work...!

A Sporty Weekend!

Had a sporty weekend!!! Played golf with Jon at Randwick Golf Club (expensive on weekends!!!) but fun nonetheless! Really starting to get the hang of golf...I think...! My tee offs are better than my fairway shots (when I actually get the ball onto the fairway!) and my putting still leaves little to be desired...! There were heaps and heaps of people there...young and old, those that looked like pros and actually were pros, and those that looked like pros but were actually were amateurs! One snobby couple behind us rudely told us to hurry up just after the 1st hole! They told us to get off the green to write down our scores on our scorecards...as if that takes sooooo long! So Jon and I deliberately took our time for the rest of the 10 holes or so we played!

Played tennis on Sunday with Jon, Dad and Carl at Matraville Sports Centre. Was really really hot as we played mid morning to midday! Teamed up with Carl against Jon and Dad but we lost in a closely fought match 7-5! Carl and I put it down to me not having my own racquet (it's being restrung at the moment!) and me having sustained a blister injury on my hand! So now patiently waiting for this stupid blister to heal so we can have a rematch at church houseparty this coming weekend...!

I love POTO!

Bought the recording of the original Phantom of the Opera performance for 10.95 from Revolution CDs in Bondi last Sunday and have been listening to it everyday in my car on the way to work! Saw the live performance when I was in year 9 I think at the theatre on King St in the city and I just remember being blown away by the performance and my first theatre experience! Then the movie came out 2 years ago and I enjoyed that as well...obviously not as good as the live performance but good nonetheless! I think I'll have to buy the sheet music!!! Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, I take my hat off to you sir!

Just finishing an evening surgical overtime and looking forward to another weekend of sleeping in etc etc!!! Yay!

Dreaded Monday is upon us!!!

Okey - so I've been kinda slack writing posts for my blog this past week...maybe it's been that I've had stuff on a couple of my weeknights, or maybe it's been that I'm just too lazy...anyhow, sorry if you've been checking my blog and have found nothing new on it for a while...promise I'll make up for it!!!

The last two weekends have been awesome! I just luvvvvv being able to wake up at my leisure and just lie in bed listening to the radio as I slowly arouse over the course of half an hour or sometimes even an hour! Sometimes I'll think it's a weekday and think "oh my gosh oh my gosh I'm late I'm late!!!" and have that rush of adrenaline as I jump out of bed and hurry to get ready for work. Then I'll look at my watch and realise that it's a weekend day and with my heart still pounding I'll breathe a sigh of relief and collapse back in bed to continue waking up!

Last weekend went out for yum cha with some med friends in Hurstville. We went to Forest Court, that huge Chinese restaurant along Forest Rd (no points for restaurant name creativity there!). It was alright for yum cha I guess and not too expensive...although that could be just cos we didn't seem to eat much as many of us were full. Afterwards, we went to see a Chilean movie called Manchuca, as part of the Sydney Latino Film Festival. It was a once off screening at the Tom Mann Theatre on Chalmers St in Surry Hills opposite Central. Film was really really good but also sad. It portrayed the divisions in Chilean society between the rich and poor, and the Socialists and Nationalists, as viewed through the eyes of a young innocent Chilean boy. Really really good movie! Afterwards met some other med friends for dinner and to celebrate Kenny's birthday at an Indian restaurant in Darlinghurst near St Vinnies. The restaurant was really popular and buffet style. The restaurant actually ahd a movie theatre of sorts above it and they had this deal where you could have dinner and see a set movie. We just had dinner but must go back one time and do the whole dinner/movie thing! Food was quite good, considering it was vegetarian! I didn't realise it was all vegetarian until I bit into what I thought was a piece of shepherd's pie to realise the brown looking stuff wasn't meat but lentils or beans of some sort!!! Yuk! But the rest of it was quite nice!

This weekend began with a nice brunch with Pauli boy at Coogee Beach. Had a nice big breakfast at once of the sidewalk cafes near Maccas! Then went shopping for guitars with Carmen and Susanna (who tagged along!)! Carmen's interested in buying a bass and I'm looking for a Maton acoustic for my brother's 21st (which was last year!) present and maybe a bass myself as well! We went to the Shire Music Centre in Miranda and had a look there. The guy was really really friendly and for once it was nice not to feel pressured into buying something. He told us all about the different guitars and his personal recommendations and yeah I must say I felt really comfortable dealing with him, as opposed to some other stores...! Afterwards we went to Hurstville hoping to visit another guitar shop but it was closed by the time we parked and finally found the store! So we grabbed an Easyway bubble tea and decided we'd watch a movie and have dinner in Hurstville. Wanted to watch Matchpoint cos someone said it was good but they weren't showing it there so we headed back to the east (the only place to be!!!) and watched it at the Ritz with Themis and Khoung as well! Good movie!!! Interesting plot and made the audience think about the difference between love and lust. After the movie we went to Sin Ma Laksa House for dinner cos we hadn't had time to have it before the movie. This is the place my brother worked at for a while whilst I was overseas in the UK. It wasn't too bad I must say after all my preconceived notions that it was awful! After dinner we had to drop Sus back to Kogarah so we stopped at the Signature Cafe overlooking Botany Bay, which was really trendy and nice! So yeah had a really fun relaxing Saturday!!!

Today at church we sang a new song from the new Emu Live CD recorded at last year's TWIST conference. It was called Hallelujah to the King of Kings and it starts with a cool riff almost exactly the same as one of the riffs from a Coldplay song! But yeah was really encouraging to hear everyone singing praises to God so joyfully and I'm glad that God could use us (the music team) to encourage the congregation!

Well that was my weekend and it's back to work tomorrow and another (hopefully not too) hectic week!!! Dreaded Monday is upon us!!!