My Blue Heaven

Spring dawning

Have people been noticing the days getting rather warm over the past week. Especially last weekend. Bring on spring!! I find there are always certain signs that tell me a change of season is on its way:

• First major sign – the beautifully bright orange flowers that bloom in my front and back yard every year, without fail, as soon as the weather turns warmer at the end of winter! I’ll try to take a pic of em to post here.
• Another is that I no longer feel that bite of cold when I get out of bed in the morning. And I no longer dash, shivering, for my uggies and night gown just to go to the bathroom!
• Similarly, I no longer have to wear my long trackies to bed at night
• I’m actually starting to find my skivvy’s a bit on the warm side during the day
• The scarf stays in the bag. The whole day.

Now I can’t wait for summer!! And the beach! Bring it on baybeeee!! 🙂

Current listening :: “I’ve Just Begun (Having Fun)” – Britney Spears

Computer crisis

I spent most of yesterday biting my nails and nearly having a nervous breakdown because my computer died when I got into work that morning. My attempts at starting up windows merely resulted in the dreaded BSOD (blue screen of death). So my pc was hauled up to engineering, where they spent half the day trying to reinstall windows and get it to boot up. No dice though, as I got a call in the afternoon stating that my hard drive was probably gone. Noooo…. all my un-backed-up work (yes yes, I know, I broke the cardinal IT rule – Back Up Your Files)…. but even worse, all my personal files and mp3s!!! Argh!!! 🙁

However, as the story unfolds, all is not as it seems, and there is still hope! I suggest to the engineer that I would really like to recover at least my work and personal files, so would it be possible to just plug my hd into another computer as a slave drive, and copy the essential files off. Sounds like an idea, and he says he’ll scrounge around for a computer. I let him know the directories to be copied and ask if I can come up to oversee this process.

So I get in this morning and he’s emailed me saying this is possible and he’s copied across those directories already. So I go upstairs, transfer a few extra files off and YAY!! All is well!! 😀 (He did however notice the size of my personal folder.. *cough*.. but didn’t say anything else about it.) He says they’ll be ordering me a new HD from Dell (even though my HD might still work if they format it… I’m probably safer with a new one, and he might just “accidently” drop my hd in the meantime… hahah).

So, thats my adventure for the last 26 hours. *phew* And I swear as soon as I get my computer back (after reinstalling all my programs… grrrr…) I will back-up all my important data. I might even burn the crucial ones to CD to be 100% safe. 🙂

So here I am now, using my work mate’s (who is on leave) computer temporarily, until I get my computer back, probably next Monday sometime. I’m glad Web ICQ still works. 🙂

Current listening :: “The Hook Up” – Britney Spears

Just as you are..

Bridget Jones Diary has got to be one of my all-time favourite movies. It is definitely my favourite girly romantic comedy. It’s just such a crack up… and soo romantic.. and Colin Firth is so.. *sigh* *melts*… as Mark Darcy. Hee hee. 😀 Paul and I watched it on DVD on Saturday night – I never seem to get tired of watching it! Here are some of my favourite quotable quotes from the movie:

“If staying here means working within 10 yards of you, frankly, I’d rather have a job wiping Saddam Hussein’s arse.”

“I like a woman with an arse you can park a bike in and rest a pint on.”

“Resolution #1: Uggh – will obviously loose 20 lbs. #2: Always put last night’s panties in the laundry basket. Equally important: will find nice sensible boyfriend and stop forming romantic attachments to any of the following: alcoholics, workoholics, sexaholics, commitment-phobics, peeping toms, megalomaniacs, emotional fuckwits, or perverts. Will especially stop fantasizing about a particular person who embodies all these things.”

“Bridget Jones, wanton sex goddess, with a very bad man between her thighs… Mum… Hi..”

Mark: “But the thing is, um, what I’m trying to say, very inarticulately, is that, um, in fact, perhaps despite appearances, I like you, very much.”
Bridget: “Ah, apart from the smoking and the drinking, the vulgar mother and… ah, the verbal diarhea.”
Mark: “No, I like you very much. Just as you are.”

“Christ, is that blue soup??”

“I’m sorry? Outside? Should I bring my dueling pistols or my sword?”

Daniel: “Now these are very silly little boots, Jones. And this is a very silly little dress. And, these are, f*** me, absolutely enormous panties.”
Bridget: “*#$%@!”
Daniel: “No, no. Don’t apologize. I like them. Hello, Mummy.”
Daniel: “I’m sorry, I have to have another look. They’re too good to be true.”
Daniel: “They’re nothing to be embarrassed about. I’m wearing something quite similar myself.”

I sooo can’t wait for Bridget Jones Diary 2: The Edge Of Reason to come out. I watched the teaser trailer today – it looks soo funny. Check it out here.

Weekend Update

Anyway, my weekend was very relaxing. I spent most of Saturday at home, catching up on some housework and washing my clothes etc.. then went swimming with Paul and cooked ourselves a yummy basil chicken stirfry for dinner. I also had some time during the day to just play piano and sing at the top of my lungs (as I was home alone for a few hours). I love singing “I’ll Forget You”.. its such a beautiful, sad song. I cried the first time I read the lyrics..

“I’ll forget you
I won’t remember arms that pulled me in, soft and slow
I’ll forget you
There has to be a way to let you go
No more shadows
No dreams of leaning in the dark above you
I will forget how much I love you… any day”
more here »

Sunday was an absolutely gorgeous day.. sunny, blue skies, light winds and a balmy 24/25 degrees C. Paul and I took the opportunity to go to Parramatta for lunch at a nice Italian Cafe, and then had some Cold Rock icecream for dessert afterwards. Yummo! 🙂

Well its lunch time. Time to go find some food!

Current listening :: “Have You Met Miss Jones” – Robbie Williams

I’m outie!

Tis 5:30pm on a Friday afternoon, its the weekend.. I’m outie! (Note the gratuitous Clueless reference.. [edit]with hopefully correct spelling this time[/edit] :P)

I leave you with this pic… as its Daffodil Day today. Hope all you guys in Australia bought yourselves (or a friend ;)) a lovely bunch of daffodils! They so pretty. 🙂

Have a good weekend everyone! I should be having a relaxing one. (Hoping my THREE ulcers get better…!!! 🙁 )

Current listening :: “Boogie Wonderland” – Earth, Wind & Fire (Gosh I’m in such a Retro music phase atm… bring on Club Retro!!! :P)

Hungry anyone..?

Man, check out these burgers!!

Apparently this is from Denny’s Beer Barrell Pub in Pennsylvania known for the world’s biggest burger which weighs in at nine pounds or four kilograms! It’s catch phrase: “No One Has Finished It”!

For $23.95 it comes with:

• 2 tomatoes
• half a head of lettuce
• 12 slices of American cheese
• full cup of peppers
• 2 onions
• plus a river of mayo, mustard and ketchup
• and topped with pickles

So… hungry anyone…?

In other news.. I’m going to see Saturday Night Fever tonight, at the Lyric Theatre! Yay! Should be some good dancing fun to watch. 🙂

Current listening :: “Just No Other Way” – CoCo Lee

Friends are friends forever?

I’ve been noticing that as I’ve grown older, the number of friends I have seem to be diminishing. Is this just a “thing” that happens as you grow older? You lose the larger groups of friends you had when you were in high school and university, and instead just cultivate a few close friends. But for me, it seems that even the good friends I had, and was once close to, are diminishing also. I dunno if it is something I’m doing wrong, or if it is just something that happens in life, and I should just accept it as a matter of change?

It makes me feel really sad to lose good friends.. to just grow apart over time. I know it happens, and that with life changes, people move in different directions. Friends come and go – you are close for a time as circumstances permit, and enjoy that shared intimacy, and then you drift apart, and it is gone.

I kinda regret that loss. And I miss the groups I was once a part of.. like most of my uni friends (whom I hardly see anymore). Its strange.. thinking about those times. It seems like it was so long ago, like it was all just a dream. Hrm. Ok this is getting a little maudlin..

Weekend Update

I had a nice weekend… even though I got sick on Saturday. 🙁 Damn this cold weather!! (I should be skiing! :P) Anyway, the Jazz In The City festival was nice. I caught the Bill Risby Trio… and even had a chat to the man himself – and guess what, he remembered me!!! *glows* I met him when I attended this Performance Arts conference in 98 (Cooma), as he was one of the staff in the Band seminar stream. He didn’t remember my name, but he recognised my face. How cool is that! 🙂

Anyway, on Sunday, Paul and I watched Jersey Girl – not a bad movie. Bit of a tear jerker (ok more than just a bit) and very cute. 🙂 On Sunday evening we went to visit St Pauls Castle Hill’s 5:30 service, and their arts festival afterwards (bumping into Vron’s family and Vanessa who were also visiting). The service was pretty good! I liked how things were run so smoothly.. like the transitions between things – from singing, to video, to prayer, to singing, to sermon, to communion. Very smooth and seamless. There was no “And now we’ll have some singing…” and then waiting for the musicians to go up and get set up. And it was good how the service was very youth-friendly (being a service mostly made up of high schoolers, I think?) – the sermon was easy to understand, with very little jargon, and had lots of interesting illustrations. The music was vibrant and energetic (using lots of hillsong I noticed.. in fact I think 100% of the songs were hillsong that night! Lots of songs from United Live latest album too.) Personally, I think I’d probably prefer the 6pm service (for a slightly older crowd) – though I have yet to try it.

The Arts Festival afterwards was good.. despite it being absolutely freezing standing around outside! I liked the last band that played (dunno their name?), esp when they played “One Way”! 🙂 And the short “Church” drama was absolutely hilarious! Very very clever! The dance was kinda cool too (using the song from the end of Honey – which reminds me.. I wanna see that movie again!)

So here I am, back at work, and feeling pretty tired. How miserable is the weather today. Yeuch! Cold, wet, and grey skies. 🙁 I really should be skiing. *sigh* (I’m obsessed, I know.. but its the best season in 13 years!!!! And I’m missing out on all that fresh POW! *cries*)

Current listening :: “What’s Up Lonely” – Kelly Clarkson

Another term gone by

Last night was the final week of my Jazz Performance Group for term 2. Another 10 weeks gone by. I’m a bit disappointed to say that I didn’t get as much out of this term as I have in the past. Partly my fault, I missed nearly half the course due to varied committments and events. So yeh, I don’t think I actually improved that much this term. I’m considering what I should do next term – I might go back to Jazz Fusion, because I like how that class pushes me, and really improves my technique and skill. Especially with the warm-up scales and exercises we have to play (in all 12 keys) at the beginning. I’m just not.. disciplined.. enough to do it myself at home. 😛 And I also like the varied styles we play (not just swing, but also funk, latin & bossa). Anyway, we’ll see.

The other option was to give myself a rest next term. Its obvious I don’t really have the time to fully commit to these classes, much less practice regularly at home. I dunno. Also, the $$$ is an issue too. These classes aren’t cheap.. and I really did waste quite a lot of money this term by missing all those weeks. 🙁 But I know if I don’t do a class, by half way through next term, I’m gonna be really missing it. And my skills will probably get rusty as there’s no added motivation to practice, and no new things to learn. Also next term is the last term for the year, which means there will be a concert to play in… another opportunity to perform! But it will be hard if I jump into Jazz Fusion again, coz I missed last term and the things they would have learnt. That class is pretty full on, and Nick takes it really fast! *sigh* Decisions decisions.

Last nights class was fun. We’ve been playing through “Autumn Leaves” the past 2 or so weeks. It’s a nice piece, and I really love the arrangement we played. Alan’s been a great teacher (and he’s an awesome musician too!) Pity my impro-ing sucks, and I’ve been too lazy/busy this term to improve very much. 🙁

Finally Friday

So glad its finally Friday! So whats planned for my weekend? Tomorrow I’m gonna be going into the city with Paul for the Jazz In The City jazz festival. My sole purpose is to see Bill Risby play! He’s an absolutely awesome awesome jazz pianist. Internationally known. Plus he’s a christian too! His going to be playing in a trio at the Old Vienna Coffee House in the QVB tomorrow, 11am-2pm. Then maybe afterwards, some friends and I might go Karaokeing. Hee. And at night I’ll hopefully be going to watch “Jersey Girl” with Paul. Its a Kevin Smith romantic comedy?! But it looks really sweet and cute.. and soppy. *sniff* Sunday we have our monthly youth celebration service – and I’ll be playing piano this time.

Anyways, I really should get back to work. Wasted most of the morning already. Plus I have to finish writing this study for tonight. Argh. *stress stress*

Current listening :: “First Love” – Utada Hikaru (I really feel like going karaokeing again.. I so wanna sing this song!)