Who's birthday? My birthday

Hi again,

I'm officially 30 years old. I still feel like I'm 18. Which is fantastic! And I couldn't be happier with what I have surrounded myself with. Great mates.

I had organised my birthday party to be held at a German restaurant on Saturday night. Unfortunately much drinking wasn't had, like the invite said. I had to drive there thanks to being totally unable to catch a taxi. Not to worry. I got there eventually. I just had to remember to drink less than I should have.

Scholastic History - A brief glimps into my horendous past

How did I come to this?

Like most people will say, "I never fit in at school". Why do a lot of people say this? Is it because they're weird? Is it because they are stupid? Is it because their teachers were just normal people that stood at the class and told you to turn to page 219 of your maths book and do questions 1 to 39?

No, it's because most teachers have been conditioned to follow a set of rules, a set of guidelines that basically put all students into one basket.

Renault Megane

Had a busy day today. I went and saw a client, met up with some old workmates for lunch at Una's in Ultimo. Then on the way home... which I love because it means invoice time, which means pay day! I stopped over at the Renault dealer on Gardner's Rd in Alexandria.

First off, I just wanted to say that I liked the dealer. I wasn't pressured into anything, but was asked nicely of my intentions and future plans.

The Peugeot 307 and a couple of Hyundai's

With all the fuss about Hyundai getting into gear and making some good cars now, the wife and I popped into the dealer today for a look. I think the Santa Fe looks the best out of all the SUV's out there. At least the new model does. The old one looked like it was already in an accident.

So I had a look at the Santa Fe and the Tucson as I need something I can cart my music gear in as well as my mountain bike(s).

Having that need, my car choice is limited. I need a wagon style body. The hatch backs I have been looking at for the last 6 months are just not adequate for my lifestyle and my needs.

Busy? I don't have time for that

A relatively quiet weekend, one would call it.

What did you get up to this weekend pips? Well.... Not a lot really. I was going to try and cut my lawn/jungle. But it was just too hot. And since my yard is the size of Botswana, I need to just pay someone else to do it for me. Work is so busy that I don't have time to do it myself.

But, ah... I'm here, writing this blog entry. So, how is it I don't have time to do my house work. Well. I cleaned the inside of the house. But that's easy in comparison to mowing my lawns. I know it's an excuse, but you try cutting my grass. It'll take all weekend. I guarantee it.

The OLPC project

Most people have now heard of the One Laptop Per Child project that has been around for a number of years. And I agree with most people, that is it a brilliant device to bring our world, particularly our 3rd world up to speed with what is happening around the rest of the place.

Great!

Well, no actually. As much as this project excites me, it also brings up a bunch of questions I can't help but ask myself. There are some issues I feel I should express as I think this whole idea of providing technology we take for granted to people who don't know what a calculator is might be uneccessary.

Mazda 6 & 2, and a disappointing X-Trail

I got to finally test drive the Mazda 6, and while I was there the 2. Here's what I thought of the now outdated model.

The 6 is great. Fit and finish is the best I've found out of all the cars I've test driven over the last 4 months. Handling is great. I drove the Turbo Diesel wagon.

I would say this is borderline, the perfect car (for me). The only gripe I have is that the diesel engine noise does intrude into the cabin a fair bit more then expected. At idle, you can barely hear any "clatter" at all. While driving, it didn't sound so refined, although it went really well. 360Nm! Loved the pulling power.

Bill Bailey

I went to see Bill Bailey last night.

Surely, he is the funniest man alive. The randomness of his ramblings and his musical act he puts on has to be one of the funniest things anyone has seen.

Bill Bailey played at the State Theatre is Sydney last night.

I think the reason I relate to a lot of his acts is because I'm a bit like that in real life. I'm not quite so off the wall as him. But I would imagine in real life he's a pretty sort of normal person, like myself. Who uses his ability to get up on stage and produce a hilarious 2 hours of time for you to invest in, and be rewarded with laughter until your tummy hurts and your cheeks fall off.

Poco bambino!

Today, I bring you the 500

You should have seen the smile on my face when the dealer brought out the loan car as I handed over the keys to my Punto, in for its first service and to look at a few small mass production Italian issues.

A Honda Jazz, a Focus, a C4 and a Forester walk into a pub....

I have driven a few more cars in the search for something that fits my lifestyle. Still on the search for that perfect car in my price range. I'm still looking, here's what I have looked at this time.

The Honda Jazz

Impressive back seats. Good Honda finish. Very quiet and smooth. Engine lacks any power what so ever. The sales guy took me on a test drive, we parked half way through some nice twisty roads, which I happened to ride down when I use to be a postie, having delivered mail in that area.

It's Fryday

Today I let the majority of my existing clients know that I will probably no longer support Windows for new clients. The current clients are okay. This comes as no surprise really. I've always preferred supporting macs and I have always had to support PC's as the bread and butter jobs. But something interesting has happened lately. I have told myself I will only suppor macs and all of a sudden these mac customers have appeared, as if out of thin air asking me for advice and bringing me work.

Buying "The" car. Now I'm being random

I've been [EDIT: had been] in the new car market for a while, as nothing has really stood out on websites, magazines, papers, dealerships etc.

I first test drove a Citroen C4 2.0L Auto. It was very nice and I have posted about it here. I would have bought it then and there if I had the money at the time. But I was just window shopping. It was comfy, handled very nice, powerful enough engine for the car. The auto worked well. I wanted the 1.6L Diesel. But I didn't get to test drive it at the time.

Not so fast!

Today was a relatively easy day..... if you ask my calendar. I really had two things booked and that was pretty much it. But for some bizzare reason I was absolutely flat chat all day. It was as if time was creeping ahead of me and before I knew it had to be somewhere 15 minutes ago.

Luckily I wasn't late for anything today. Though I seemed to have forgotten a lot of things. I forgot my external hard drive, my music, my diary and my contacts. I forgot my brain too. Left the soggy mass sitting on the couch near my laptop.

Citroen C3 and C4.... a little bit of VW Polo, Megane, 307, Swift etc.

A while ago, I test drove a whole bunch of cars.



Here's what I thought.

The C3 was nicer the second time around. Maybe it's grown on me. Maybe it's because I drove it first this time around, instead of the C4 first like I did last time.

Here's the story on both models.

Hump day

There's a lot to do this week. Organise my birthday, get the car serviced... well, that's it really. I do have other things to do like follow up some business enquiries, look at an office space for my business and maybe even get myself a little present.

Wifey wants to really buy me that Crossley's Guitar I liked. I'd love it. But it is rather pricey. I mean, $3K+ is asking for a great guitar. But then I have to buy an amp for it. Ebay will more than likely be my first stop.

Just another manic Monday

Today was a nice day.

Woke up nice and early, took the missus to the train station. Dropped her off and she was on her way to work. Meanwhile, I returned home ate some breakfast, checked my email, looked at my customers unpaid invoices and did some housekeeping on my network before 9am.

Later on I sent some customers some emails advising them when I'll be visiting them, while I sent the others my unpaid invoice reminders. By 9:30am I had to take off to a clients so I could make sure their system was running properly. I've been having printer issues with them lately, HP says the printer is fine. But it isn't. Luckily the client is a very understanding person and gets that things don't always work properly.

Picking up habits

In order for me to continue this blog, I have decided I will try my best to post something new once a day. At worst a week and hopefully this blog will live on. :)

It was one of those busy weekends where you appear to have done not much, but there is no time for anything else, and you look back while at work to wonder what happened.

I'm Back

Who the flippin' hell are you? I hear you ask. LOL.

Yeah, I got my arse into gear and am going to be journaling my brain explosions from now on.

So, what’s new?