APEC is done
So...

The weekend... it was an interesting day on Friday as the proverbial hit
the fan regarding a televised poke at the PM (who shall forever now be
known as Penfold the
PM). Whilst I PERSONALLY thought the signing was funny and the very
apt, televising it nationally and making the PM look like a
second-bannana (which come to think of it may not be too far from the
public's perception anyway) brought the ca-ca out and flung it in
several people's faces. I, personally, was privately carpeted because of
my personal association with those concerned, but managed to wrangle
another week here, as they had no legal recourse to ask me to walk out.
Sometimes it's good to know people in Unions... see? Unions work.
However, allegedly some were not so lucky and are not here this week
(even though they were apparently going to be here for longer). Funny,
hell yes. If it hadn't been telecast, even moreso. To have it slapped on
National TV (whilst damned funny) holds repercussions (nothing 'formal'
you know) for some people's future employment - that will be a note on
the file somewhere, you know - future Security clearances etc....

Anyway!

The upshot was that I went home on Friday afternoon - and had a quiet
one, though it was possible that I would be going out the Rose to see a
Folk Metal band (yes, you heard me correctly, Folk-Metal). That got
kyboshed by a) my mood and b) the person I was going there with begged
off on account of the flu and them wanting to be well enough to get to
Earthdance with me on Sunday.

Saturday was a day spent dashing about shopping and getting things ready
for the new housemate, whilst one of the old housemates was getting
their stuff together for heading back to Canberra. I also have an order
in with
Solid Grain, for a new bed - though they say they won't have the
model I want ready for a month. Sounds like they're building it from
scratch ;). I was invited out to see a DJ at The Burdekin on Saturday
night (seeing as there was nothing else on) but I wanted to be fine and
dandy for Earthdance, so I didn't. I did some cleaning of the house with
piratenoir though, and picked up a Registered letter from
the Post Office containing my Police tickets ;)

Sunday was Earthdance! :) ctrlshft called around - I was ready and we (ctrlshft, piratenoir and I) were at Sydney Park at
midday (as planned). Spent the day wandering with people and having the
universe come up and say Hello to us. Patted the sniffer dogs, much to
the disgust of the police-handlers ;) saw MANY people - all too many to
be really taggable (though 2 certain people were more the worst for wear
having gone to The Burdekin the night before). I know that Shell took
some worthy pics of the group of us. I found and lost and found and lost
people, which is par for the course, though ctrlshft and I
kept together with piratenoir for the bulk of the day -
$8.50 for a can of Smirnoff Double Black! WTF??. Toward the end, we left
about 7:30pm to beat the crowd-rush - piratenoir was refused
entry into The Townie (she hadn't been drinking) we went to The Bank and
had a meal (which cost an arm and a leg - I guess they have to pay for
the renovations somehow) and piratenoir wandered off. ctrlshft and I cruised back to and through the Townie and then a
cab and dropped her home.

Yesterday I had the day off - and woke up feeling quite presentable
(weirdly enough). Bought things for the house, put together a cat-tree,
cleaned the kitchen for the evening's champagne soiree and that was they
day. Well, then there were The Emmys -
with more people than I expected, though many didn't even answer the
invites. Y'know - I always think that if you get an invitation, it's
polite to even answer 'No'. many don't, which I think is a little rude.
Anyway, be that as it may, we had 6 over for it - xeanalyth,
the lovely Tasha, piratenoir stayed in for it, str8bi & myself. There was to be an illdrinn, but
she was held up at class and by the time she finished, the Awards were
3/4 over, so she missed them. I must say that I liked the stage setup...
BUT it was jarringly like a game-show set. Hence: Ryan Seacrest
hosting... and whilst he was mediocre at best, he was not as good as
David Letterman hosting the Oscars (now think on that). Sally Field was
censored because she said "God", some people were funny, but overall I
think it deserved the low ratings it got. The obvious choices won in the
major categories - and I loved Brian and Stewie doing the opening number
(there MUST be a You Tube link to that somewhere) - I can't find the
number, although here is the Best of The Emmys
2007 - spoiler content unknown. Much champagne, much food, and much
hilarity... Jon, you and Dustin were missed.

Then much sleep.

Now I'm back in the office finalising the cleanup for APEC stuff. The IT
gear will probably mostly go to Auction with Grays Online in a
month-ish. I made a point of eyeballing everyone that I could this
morning to see fallout from Friday - and I could tell by the furtive
glances away from some that they were caught out ;) Like I said earlier
- it's GOOD to know the Union reps.

Tonight... War Of The
Worlds with arradius.