::: Thursday February 17, 2005 :::

Well, what can I say....back in New Zealand, but not really wanting to be here. Much rather be in Melbourne, that is where my life is.

Been a busy little camper, running around sorting out my visa, starting work, finding a houseshare and moving in, getting my stuff out of bonded storage without getting charged for it, getting the rather shabby Honda back up to scratch (And then some toerag broke the mirror off the passenger side last night, and a psychotic bus driver sliced up the front bumper today....with his bus), and generally just getting myself settled in.

Auckland is a bit of a let-down after Melbourne, there are no really good night spots, the drivers are idiots, and most kiwis have their clothing taste firmly up their backside. I used to think that the poms dressed badly!

Anyway, enough of a rant, I'm going off to do more interesting things than bugger about on a computer.

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::: Monday January 03, 2005 :::

Literally still have sand in my shoes from the trips down to Portsea for Christmas, and up to Noosa for New Years.

Christmas lunch with Teri & Paul, Ger & Jen (and the kids) and the folks. After lunch, drove down to Portsea to meet up with Beth, who had been lunching with Kylies future in-laws, and we went on to the cottage. Went for a dive on the Lonsdale Wall on boxing day, but otherwise just chilled. Then back to Melbourne for a few days before flying up to Maroochydore in order to get to Noosa.

Spent most of the days at Noosa on the beach, while the evenings were spent in the fine company of Des and Lesley. Davinder and Katrina were over from NZ as well, so they came up form Eudlo for the day and we met up at le Monde cafe. New Years eve saw us at a restuarant called Lindonis, where a good party was had by all. One of the best New Years I've had in a long time, was not keen on coming back to Melbourne.

Sunshine Beach, Noosa	Dino sleeping off his hangover in the shade
New Years Eve

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::: Friday October 22, 2004 :::

So I've loaded Blosxom on the server to make my life a little easier. The next thing to do is to write some more CGI that will allow me to upload text and photos from a browser, and have then automagicaly linked, commented, etc. Anything to make life simple.

I've also split out the various categories that are of particular interest to me, but it's not a forgone conclusion that I'm going to revisit the old entries and recategorise them. At the moment I just couldn't be arsed.

Anyway, it's been a while, but worse things happen at sea, you know... There's not really been a whole lot to report on, I've sorta calmed down since getting together with Beth. We tend to do the more civilised stuff, like head down to Church Street for a light dinner and bottle of vino, or a lovely sunset picnic on the beach, which is 5 minutes away from the house. We have had a weekend down in Portsea, and a long weekend in Sydney (Last weekend), both of which were rather fun. Anyway, that's about it from me for the present, I will upload some photos and do more stuff over the weekend (Maybe - I'm putting some network cabling in the house, so it's doubtful if I'll have the time.

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::: Tuesday October 05, 2004 :::

A big break in updates, what can I say.....I have been very busy getting settled. Did the Flinders Pier dive with Brad and Helen (See pics below - As I haven't yet installed a decent photo editing package, they are still showing a greenish tinge....), first time I'd met them, they are a thoroughly nice couple. Hopefully will do some more dives with them. It looks like both are avid underwater photographers, so I may just pick up some tips. They showed me some of the photos they took on a recent holiday, absolutely stunning shots. Also did the shark dive; Pics to come - my Olympus battery went flat halfway through, as I hadn't charged it after the previous days dive, but Beth was in the viewing area with the Canon 300D, so she got some good shots.

Pregnant Male Weedy Sea Dragon @ Flinders Pier
Nudibranch on Pier Support	Nudibranch on Seabed

The full size shots of most of my photos are here

We're heading off this afternoon down to Portsea for the weekend, and although the weather is foul, going to try to get at least one dive in. Teri & Paul are coming too. Glad I'm not going to be flying in the miserable weather this weekend.......

Found a good site, shows Melbourne's weather radar

Also found out that the photo I took of the sunset over Port Phillip Bay is going to be published in issue 23 of Digital Photography Made Easy

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::: Tuesday September 28, 2004 :::

Beth & I are an item.

Booked my dive in the shark tank for this coming Sunday, and have been invited for a dive at the reef off Flinders Pier on Saturday. About bloody time I went and got wet.......

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::: Sunday September 12, 2004 :::

Went out with B to the Camberwell market and then on to the Victoria market. When we got home, I found Socks (Beths aged battle cat) lying on the floor. He held on for Beth and breathed his last when she got to him. Very very sad, apparently he didn't do strangers, yet he was all over me from day one. Beth's had him for 20 years, so he really was one of the family, and she was extremely upset. We went out and gave him a wake.

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::: Saturday September 11, 2004 :::

Went to Florentines for brekky again, then trundled off to the bike show with Teri and Paul to meet up with Karen and Mick (Beths sister and BIL). We had Zack (K & Ms son) with us, but managed to find them in the show and give him back. B & I decided we are going to buy a jetski...

Chilled out, and watched one of my Pink Panther DVDs.

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::: Friday September 10, 2004 :::

Not a whole lot.....again......just more work.

Went to Loft after work, then home to smarten up, and out to PJs. The intention was to move on to Retro, but then decided that Beths offer to pick me up and go back to her place was a much better idea, so out she came, back to the apartment we went, and collected stuff for the weekend.

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::: Monday September 06, 2004 :::

Dinner with Beth

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::: Sunday September 05, 2004 :::

Flying. More bloody circuits.....with crosswind. IFR with the hood out to Point Cook next time. Picked up Beth on the way back, then off to Teris for birthday din-dins with her, Paul and the folks.

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