15-Jan-2007 - New years resolutions update

Its only been a couple of weeks since the new year, but I have been doing quite a bit working towards my new years resolutions.

Learn surfing:

Last weekend I went down to Manly beach with Andrew M and we joined the manly surf school for a lesson. They showed us what we were meant to do, and then we spent the rest of the 2 hours trying to do it. We were only trying to catch the broken waves that were coming in, and I managed to stand up a couple of times. Its much harder than I thought so i'm going to have to do a lot more surfing! I think I will buy myself a wetsuit, and I can hire a board every time I go down. I might go back in a couple of weeks for another try. Its fun when you manage to do it!

Make a music video:

Yesterday I met up with Tim H and we took a video camera down to the big housing commission towers at redfern. We walked around the area for about half an hour filming different bits and pieces. I dont know how it will all turn out in a video clip, we'll have to wait and see. But I would have got a good couple of minutes of stuff out of it I think.

Read two classic books:

This was the first of my resolutions that I started doing, and probably the easiest of them all. I ended up buying The Mysterious Island (Jules Verne) and The Island of Doctor Moreau (H. G. Wells). Notice a theme?

The two books

Yep I like islands haha.. maybe thats why I love watching Lost so much. I can now report that I have completely read The Island of Doctor Moreau! So this resolution is 50% complete!

Swim a total of 50km:

Well this one hasnt been started yet. But its not through a lack of trying. The building I live in is part apartments, part hotel. And its school holidays. Every time I go down to the pool it is full with kids, and its only a lap pool so there is no room to swim when anyone is playing around in it. Soon the new Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre will open just down the road and i'll be able to go there to swim instead.

As for all the rest of the resolutions, they havent been started yet. There is still a lot to do! Thankfully I have got plenty of time :-)

12-Jan-2007 - Christmas and Manly beach

Well its been a few weeks since christmas, so Merry Christmas! Ummm. yeah ok so i'm a bit late. Better late than never right? :-)

During the Christmas period I went to Manly beach a couple of times. While I was there with Julian one time it absolutely pissed down with rain. We were stranded, so popped into a cafe and had a coffee while it was raining. It was absolutely bucketing down - I havent seen it rain so hard in a long time. We checked out some hippie shop which had many books dedicated to marijuana and the like. I have never understood what the fascination with incense is, but hey if thats your thing!

While we were on the main concourse we saw 3 wise men on camels making their way towards the church.

Camels on the Steyne

Looked very cool.. i've never seen camels in such a populated area before. But something was not quite right with these 3 wise men. Look closely..

Aha! Red thongs

Hmm.. not really sure if the three wise men wore thongs in those days. But then something even stranger happened...

Whats going on here?

Thats right! The three wise men have mobile phones these days. The guy in the pic is having a mobile conversation :-)

Anyway on a completely different tangent I took this photo while in Manly. I think it looks really cool:

Coloured wall in Manly

Hmm ok I have strange tastes, but it sure does something for me.

And a final random image..

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

10-Jan-2007 - Eckythump - New years eve

Every year I always leave organising my plans for new years eve until the last minute. This usually results in having no plans for NYE, and ends up with me watching fireworks with a friend or two.

This year was no exception, I left things to the last minute. However this time I still managed to get my act together to get rave tix for me and Julian to go to Eckythump NYE. At first I was a bit sceptical because it was one of those 'call up on the night' type events. Usually i'm fine with that, but on NYE when transport is chaos and the harbour bridge closes down and stuff its good to know where you are going!

The party was held at an indoor sports complex at 25 Amax ave Girraween. I have been to this venue many years ago for another rave - Utopia 4. Its not a bad venue for a party so I was looking forward to it.

Lighting

It was a great atmosphere inside, with everyone celebrating NYE and the crowd was very friendly.

Oooh red...

It was the night of saying "Happy new year" to complete strangers, and also the night of the French Jump.

At midnight they did a 2 minute laser thing with a countdown and a sound clip of memorable moments in 2006, then at 12:00 blew out heaps of confetti / streamers stuff over the crowd.

Lasers over the crowd

The music was great and me and Jules were partying hard for most of the night. It was a nice change to have a smaller friendlier crowd than the usual huge parties on NYE.

Oooh blue...

At around 4am the music went down suddenly and for a few minutes it looked like the rave was going to end. Apparently there had been complaints and the police had showed up.

I love this photo

It kind of put a dampner on my mood, and although the music was turned back up it wasnt as good and so me and Jules ended up leaving about 4:30.

Oooh white...

After I dropped off Julian, I drove through the city to get home and the streets were still packed with people at 5am. Lots of them looked very partied out, but others were still going :-)

LED man

All up it was a great party, and a pretty cheap one for NYE too. I'm already looking forward to the next rave!! :-)

1-Jan-2007 - New years resolutions

I dont normally do new years resolutions, but I thought this year I should really come up with a list so that I have the motivation to do the things in my life I have been wanting to do but have never really got around to doing. Its also a good opportunity to push myself harder and to try new things.

I decided to come up with a list of 10 things that are clear objectives which can be completed at any time throughout the year and can be ticked off once completed. There are no "fuzzy" things in this list such as "Be a nicer person" or anything like that... its a list of distinct goals that can be reached and completed.

After much thinking I could only come up with 7 resolutions, and so here are my new years resolutions:

• Run a half marathon
• Learn surfing
• Make a music video
• Lose 5kg / 5% body fat
• Create a music track
• Read two classic books
• Swim a total of 50km

You can see the full details of each one on my New Years Resolutions page. I will also be updating the page as I progress so that if I dont get my butt into action the whole world can know about it.

And just to give me further incentive.. I have added a new section in the right bar of this page so everyone can see my progress. Wish me luck!

Happy New Year!!! :-)