Asian Cup Countdown

Starting to count down the days to Asian Cup now, it is so close!
Got a heap of organising done on Sunday arvo/night at Vj's place. It went so long Steph even joined us. It's gonna be way cool. Hopefully my finances are in order by the time I depart. Regardless of how much money I take, as some point it is inevitable that I will see something awesome that is beyond my price range, or I am simply flat broke. I hope to postpone that point for as long as possible!

Last week went to Murramurang Eco-Point Resort in Bateman's Bay. It won't compare to the resorts in Thailand of course! Nor will the weather for that matter, even if it rains at least it wont be cold! The trip was for the Spectrum Planning Branch planning days. Score, only been at Acma for 5 months and got two planning days hehe :D Was quite fun although very cold, and the water and food was poor. Also didn't get any travel allowance as everything was paid for, dammit! JP almost got in a nasty situation with a nasty bitch on heat :S ugh! loller

This weekend I'm off to my second ballet sojourn to Sydney. This time it is to see the Paris Opera Ballet's production of Jewels, a 3 act homage to the history of ballet by George Balanchine with sets and costumes by Christian Lacroix. Should be pretty groovy!

Soccer has been going really well. Since our embarrassing 4-3 defeat to cellar dwellers Tuggeranong we took a break for two weeks and have come out firing. A 3-1 victory of 4th placed Brindabella Blues followed by last weekend's convincing 4-0 demolition of Gungahlin have put us back on track. My vow of winning all 3 remaining games after the Tuggeranong loss is almost complete! Hopefully we will get our fixture vs top of table Belnorth moved to when I get back and the boys keep the work rate up and the points coming in while I am away.

Buy now and play later

I have a new toy.
The mega-est of mega phones.
The omniscient Nokia n95!

The marketing blurb:

• 3G phone
• 5 megapixel camera
  
• TV quality video recorder
• GPS navigation
• Media player
• Wi-Fi

In practice:

• 3G: Video phone is a heap of fun!
• 3G: HSPDA is quite fast, can stream video competently with only occasional buffering.
  
• 3G: Just set up email today, is pull email atm - will check to see if there is push functionality.
• 5 megapixel camera may be the best in it's class, but the picture quality is relatively appaling so far
• Haven't properly tested the video yet
• Haven't properly tested the navigation yet
• Haven't properly tested the media player yet
• Haven't properly tested the wi-fi yet

Will post more about the n95 later.

Asia Cup is getting nearer and nearer. Our standby flights went through so we will be going for the whole tournament now! The good thing is we get to see more football and spend more time in Thailand. The bad thing is I have to pay for it somehow! This trip has very little focus and I find myself trying to make it a truly uber trip, only to realise that it will come with an uber price tag! A $5000 excursion is quickly turning into a $10,000 one!! eep!

Of kitty litter and wisdom teeth...

I've been at Dad's place in Fairbairn for ages now. Here's the update.

First and foremost - kitty litter is gross. True, life would be much grosser without it, but kitty litter is nonetheless - gross. And it gets grosser the longer you leave it, and the lower it's ratio to kitty "deposits" becomes!

Fortunately - Xbox 360 rox and rox hard! Dad's tv turns out to be HD capable, and 50" of xbox 360 is pretty mega! :D I've built up a decent collection of games and accessories and the box is an able replacement for my beloved old Dreamcast. I have 8 games : Pro Evo 6, Ghost Recon 1, Project Gotham Racing, Dead or Alive 4, Viva Pinata, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Phantasy Star Universe and Gears of War. I also have 3 controllers with rechargeable batteries for all.

I have to constrain my purchasing for the moment though as my finances have been perilously precarious over the last week! $1750 is about what it would have cost me without health insurance to have all my wisdom teeth removed! Even with health insurance I am still out of pocket over a grand at the moment but Medibank and Medicare should replenish my wallet a decent proportion of that this week. Having my wisdom teeth out hasn't been completely awful. Fortunately I don't have too much pain, but my face is all swollen on the left hand side where the doctor evidently had a little trouble 'encouraging' the tooth out... Oh well.

Dad and Jo will be back from their European sojourn in only another week or so. There's lots more to say but maybe I will say it later, if ever. Customs got back to me and my security was approved so the move over there is on, but not before Asian Cup in Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Indonesia next month! Should be groovy.

Too bad about this shitty cold Canberra weather.