Wow. Shit. Been quite a while since I last wrote.

The girl came down to visit me for a week and just flew back home today. The week seemed far too short, but it was a fantastic time while she was here. It was just so nice to see her, hold her, hug her, brush her hair, kiss her etc etc etc (and no, I'm not being sleazy here...I'll save that for another time ;> )

I've still got the cold, although it has morphed into something more evil. I've got a wet cough, a dry cough, really sore neck joints and glands that go up and down faster than a two bit whore on a Saturday night. I don't feel well, but I'm struggling on for the time being. I've got an appointment to see the doctor this Wednesday so maybe I'm going to be better soon.

Sadly, my old dog was given the "green dream" late last week and is now my late dog. Although the dog and I haven't disagreed with each other's very existence for quite a few years now, I was still a bit sad when my sister emailed me to tell me the bad news. In a bad weekend for dogs, H's mum rang her to tell her that her old dog had died as well. Both dogs were definitely on their last legs, but it is still the end of an era.

The girl and I had an engagement party of sorts on Saturday night. It was really just an excuse to have a little party so that she could meet all my new friends down here, but still it was a lot of fun. We made chocolate fondue, which I nearly killed but it was rescued in the end. Apparently, chocolate doesn't just magically melt into liquid but tends to melt than burn and make a mess (and smell bad). As I now know, it needs things like cream or milk and marge to make a fondue. The things you learn.

I've got a nice trip to Woollongong this weekend to play soccer. I have no idea what it will be like (especially as I'm still sick) but I've never had an end of season trip so it should be fun. If nothing else, it's an excuse to have a few drinks over a long weekend.

Well, home sick again. I kept waking myself up during the night with my coughing, and I couldn't stop coughing this morning either. My throat was raw and my voice all scratchy from the abuse my cold has been dishing out.

I tried to get ready for work and go this morning. I got up at the normal time, I ate my breakfast, I had a shave and a shower. I just couldn't stop coughing and I was starting to get all achy in my joints. After I rang work to say I wouldn't be coming in (again), I went back to bed and slept for like another three or four hours. I felt so good after that. There's no way around it though, I need to be at work tomorrow, cold or no cold. I've got too much to do to take another day off work.

I roughly finished a new track Monday and yesterday. It can temporarily be found here [home.connexus.net.au/~smperris]. Just follow the link (there is only one on the page).

My girl comes down to visit me in just under a week. Yay! I can't wait. I may have mentioned this before but it has been far too long.

Cold's suck. In fact, they blow as well. They suck, and they blow, all at the same time. Of course, instead of lying in bed, recovering after being sent home from work ("There's nothing that can't wait - go home and get better...and don't rush back either! You'll only make yourself sicker!" - I work with some really nice, cool, people), I'm logged on, checking email, updating my blog. I need help, I really do.

The very temporary link for my first ever song is here [www.autodafe.net]. Autodafe, one of the denizens of KVR, kindly offered me some space on his server for the purposes of this month's competition. When my registration with mp3.com comes through, I'll have a more permanent home.

I'm currently putting the finishing touches on my second ever track. Hopefully, I'll have a link for that soon too.

Weird thought for the day: have you ever sat there and felt the bones on your face? I mean, felt around, worked out what was bone, what was cartilage, where the cavities would be, what your skull would look like petrified and on a shelf somewhere? It's weird, but kinda cool. I was doing this because I was trying to relieve the pressure in my sinuses (once again, suck and blow) and it struck me - our faces are freaky.

Oh, and btw...
*wave EBE*
Hope you had a good party man. Sorry I couldn't be there...

Not a huge amount has happened this week. I finished writing my first ever song earlier in the week. It's only 60 seconds long, but that's long enough to enter into the monthly competition over at KVR. I'll provide a link as soon as I have a permanent place to host it.

Work has been steady. I'm really enjoying it at the moment. I've got a sneaking suspicion that improving water quality in Australia might turn out to be something I can actually believe in and feel passionate about. That's a bit of a weird feeling because there is very little that I do care passionately about (apart from one or two very special people). Only time will tell.

I just changed the resolution on my 19" monitor to 1280x960. Gotta say, not bad. It'll take a little getting used to (and my make working in Rebirth a bit trickly (I think it likes a native resolution of 800x600 althought it did work fine in 1024x768) but I don't use it that often at the moment anyway. Fruityloops looks fine in it and since that is my primary host at the moment, that's all that counts. If I need to use Rebirth on a more regular basis, I can always alter the res. again.

I've really been missing H. in the last couple of weeks. It's been almost like a physical pain. I'm so glad that she's coming down to see me in a couple of weeks. It's been too long...

Once again we got thumped . We lost 7-0 to the team that is top of the table (we're in State 3). Since our goal difference already sucked, it looks like we're going to finish with the wooden spoon. At least we gave it everything today. As I thought, my infected blister gave me hell (you should have seen the pus I squeezed out of it last night!). I just couldn't run anymore and volunteered to come off early into the second half. If I stayed on, I felt like I would have let down the team.

A blister on the ball of my left big toe burst yesterday morning. Now it is infected. It's gonna hurt like hell to play soccer tomorrow.

Ooh, it's been a few days since I updated this. I know, I've been slack. However, there's really not been all that much to say. I moved into a new section at work on Monday and will spend the next three months immersing myself in issues relating water quality, salinity, environmental flows and all things Murray-Darling. Promises to be a lot of fun, but also a hell of a lot of work. Still, it will definitely be worth it.

I tasted the bitter taste of eBay defeat - slammed down within the last 5 minutes. It's a good thing to because I got caught up in the bidding a little and was prepared to pay a bit more than I can probably justify. Even the price I finally settled on was still only 25% of RRP. Oh well B4, even though I never knew you, I'll miss you so. Someone even offered to sell me a copy of the software for $30 plus P+P. I've got a suspicion that this was in fact warez ($30 for something that retails between $400 and $500? I think I'm right to be a little suspicious) so I reluctantly turned it down. Call me strange, but to me it's theft. If other people can do it and sleep at night, that's there problem. It's just not for me. A lot of time and effort goes into developing these products and everyone still has the right to earn a living. That's the problem with the internet - it's raised a whole generation of people who seem to believe that they should get everything for nothing. I guess I'll just have to settle for free imitations (like the B5 sound module offered by SampleTank).

Have had a bit of trouble getting motivated lately. Even though I'm finally getting enough sleep, I'm still having trouble staying awake and keeping energised. Sometimes it sucks to be so far away from all your loved ones.

The wedding plans are moving along nicely (no thanks to me of course...there's not much you can do when you live 1300kms away from the organisation of it). The venue and reception have been booked and a large chunk of the "little things" have been squared away. I wish I could help more, I really do, but my options are somewhat limited.

I forgot to mention that once again, I have managed to injure one of my ankles this year playing soccer (this makes the third time...). This time I did it in a particularly spectacularly stupid way by standing on the ball. I was chasing it down the side line, desperately trying to keep it in when I mistimed a left foot kick (I'm right footed). What makes it worse was that the ball had already gone out of play.

I'm glad there's only two or three games left this year. I'm not sure my body could take much more. I'm far too young to feel this old...

*sigh*
Once again my soccer team has been on the receiving end of a less than flattering score line (6-3 - in fact, we beat these guys 6-3 in the previous round too). For various reasons it just seems hard for the team to put together 90 minutes of good football. Often, we'll be all over the opposition for the first 30-45 minutes but we usually fail to make use of our dominance by scoring. Eventually the tide starts to turn against us and it's all over. Hopefully things will be better next year as everyone gets more used to playing as a team.