Together Again

Hey Gang;

I somehow managed to stay awake for the entire first game of footy on Friday night. This was a necessity brought on by the recent appearances of the TV vulture (a.k.a The Lovely Samantha). She enjoys nothing better than to circle around the couch and swoop down to change the channel when she spies my eyelids fighting a dying battle to stay open.

On Saturday we went to the Urban Uprising gallery in Darlinghurst. There was an exhibition of Shepard Fairy's work (the guy who made the iconic Obama "Hope" image). I'll shamelessly claim in high fashion style that we were fans before he became big but don't have any of his work on our walls to back up the claim. A bit of shopping in the arvo but nothing else to mention apart from the fact that the local IGA supermarket now has a DVD rental machine which will result in significant savings in not just cost but also return trip walking times to rent a movie.

Sunday was basically spent preparing a biblical feast for the mini Knights* reunion in Sydney that night. Shalome brought her new IBM employee of the month Brendan. Scarlette, Mere, Damo, Zali, Meg, Jonathan, Sam, Bodhi and I filled the rest of the seats around the table indulging in fine food and wishing you were there.

see ya,
Minas.


*For regular readers of this blog unfamiliar with it's origins, A core group of six friends formed over late nights during the 1998 PriceWaterhouseCoopers boot camp in Tampa Florida. Calling themselves "The Knights of The Square Table" (later shortened to "Knights"), they vowed that each Monday, no matter where in the world they were, they would update each other with their weekend exploits. Twelve years on, that tradition continues.

Knackered

Friday night footy...i think. Massive week of working both day and night so I was asleep before the kickoff. I photographed the previously mentioned fundraiser event my neighbour was organising which featured mind blowing opera singers. Once again, brilliant performers and they really worked the crowd.

The trouble with leaving a weekend update till Wednesday is that I forget what I did although I do remember on Saturday night heading along to a mate's 40th. The sobering reality of a friend turning the big four O was not lost on me either. While I've still got nineteen years to go, The Lovely Samantha has only a few left and as I've no intention of sleeping with a forty year old, we'll have to make hay so to speak.

Yum cha on Sunday morning set us up nicely for an afternoon of DVDs and lounging on the couch. Bodhi blissfully played in his room with his playdough the entire time. A Godsend...until the clean up.

see ya,
Minas.

Friday night's a great night for Football

It's back, I'm back, life is back...on Friday nights at least. I am once again filled with tears of gratitude to the execs at channel nine for broadcasting a double header on Friday nights. To celebrate the start of the new season we splurged on pizzas, and I don't use the term splurge lightly. At $19 each, that's more than my current hourly wage labouring for a mate on his building site.

I was up early baking scones on Saturday morning. They were for the Welcome Brunch at Bodhi's day care center. The occasion also doubled as the annual AGM where a new parent's committee for 2010 was formed. Chairman Min's glorious reign has thus come to an end, but despite the GFC we leave the center with a very healthy war chest due in no small part to the extraordinary fundraising efforts of The Lovely Samantha.

She also picked up some freelance writing during the week so I spent the rest of the day distracting the boy wonder while she penned some more pizza money.

I donned the apron once again to make a cracking pumpkin & walnut risotto for dinner. It's a Jamie Oliver recipe and was so good I'd go so far as say it may well have had the naked chef doing laps around the dinner table.

My old film camera got a dust off on Sunday. Apart from facilitating a different photography dynamic, it also complemented the retro styled outfit I wore to celebrate our good friends' wedding. The groom is a bit of a geek and made a great app which projected onto a big screen people's SMS in real time. Made for some funny moments. Great location, yum food and I couldn't think of a better way to spend a Sunday night.

see ya,
Minas.
www.minasaroney.com.au

What goes on a buck's night, stays on a buck's night.

I can't remember what I did on Friday night, but heads up for this week - NRL season opener - get in!

Bodhi and I took The Lovely Samantha out to breakfast on Saturday. Annandale's in the midst of a cafe epidemic with several new ones popping up in recent months and I rate them all. Revolver does a brilliant cheese burger (with pickles) and Clover's bircher muesli is the bomb. Cafe brunches are probably the only indulgence I really miss.

In the afternoon I dusted off the camera for the first time in a few weeks (been a bit down about it). A neighbour organising a fund raiser wanted some shots of himself (on piano accordion) and opera singers who will be performing on the night. Lisa is in Baz Luhrmann's Midsummer Night's Dream and WOW! Can she sing! Bloody brilliant! I had to pinch myself to leave.

Saturday night was Cam's buck's party and as the saying goes what goes on a buck's stays on a buck's. Sadly hangovers don't fall into that category and I foolishly brought one home with me after a night of throwing alcoholic caution to the wind.

Despite my best efforts, I couldn't raise my head above horizontal for most of Sunday.

see ya,
Minas.

LIFO

Those familiar with computer programming will recognise LIFO as being the acronym for the Last-In-First-Out queue processing algorithm. It's also a commonly employed hiring & firing policy which the Lovely Samantha has fallen foul of this week. So much for our short lived experiment living off her salary. But, considering the location was at best inconvenient, the pay poor and the career path led nowhere, it was really a blessing in disguise.

On Saturday (while Sam was at work learning about her fate) I took the boy wonder to his friend's 2nd birthday party. The lack of fairy bread played on his mind for a while but was soon forgotten upon spotting the Thomas The Tank Engine pinyada. Instead of hitting it with a stick though, kids took turns to pull out ribbons (one of which would open the bottom seam). It got me thinking though about all the games of yesteryear which have since been politically corrected. Why just last week we were found guilty of using an every-kid-gets-a-present-pass-the-parcel. To compound matters we also boiled the eggs so that no-one would be upset if their egg dropped off their spoon during the race and broke. Also, down at the local park, the seesaw is spring loaded so no one gets hurt if the other jumps off. It makes me wonder what other innocent games have fallen victim to the modern day PC syndrome. Are we raising a generation who will associate mediocrity with reward?

What is the world coming to?

Sam was out on Saturday night for a hen's do so it was a boy's night in. I put him to bed early so i could get through two DVDs (Borat & The Soloist).

Sunday doesn't rate a mention.

see ya,
Minas.