The most uncommon of the senses.

In a classic example of common sense, whilst recovering from a badly strained calf I have entered the Melbourne Marathon.

Normally, due to my penchant for injury under large kilometre training, I don't enter the marathon until as late as possible. This year I wanted to take advantage of the cheaper early bird entry fees which close today.

I was way ahead in training, but this calf strain put me back a couple of weeks. That said, if I can have a clear block of training from here to the event I will be fine. If I can run the Sandy Point Half in a few weeks time, it will be of great benefit and if I can do it in 90 - 95 mins then I will be right on track.

It's a bit of a catch 22, train early and hard and my performance should be better. But lots of kilometres at a high intensity almost guarantees something will break on me. I'm hoping the calf strain will be it and I will have enough common sense not to push too hard over the next couple of weeks while it finishes healing. I don't like my odds.

Wow! This thing still works!

Don't really have anything to say, but that's never stopped me in the past. So what's going on? Just back from JP's and soprano gurl's awesome wedding that we extended into a holiday. It was a genuine 3 day wedding and a bunch of fun. I got into triathlons last summer and interestingly the speed work has had a positive effect on my distance running. My long run is currently a hilly 24kms in about 1:42 which for me is flying. Things are busy at work and my masters is still chugging along. Sophasaurus is doing really well and the iPad we brought has turned into a fantastic educational tool for her. It is quite surprising how effective a learning aid it is. Dr Yobbo if you read this http://racearoundtheweb.com.au/ is tailor made for The World of Bollocks, get into it. Last point of this pretty shitty post - Wiggins is overrated, he is not in Cadel's league. Now off to see if I can find a Green Frog......

Huh? What's going on.

So I haven't been here for a while. I have a good excuse, honest!

I have been flat out. Work. Monster. Uni. Running.
The monster is going great. She is pretty much walking now. Still isn't a massive fan of it, but at least she is doing it. Definitely has a "why walk when I can be carried" attitude.

I have taken on two subjects at Uni this semester. It's proving to be a pain in the arse. I can't start it until about 9pm so most nights I don't bother. Then blow entire weekends trying to catch up. Not sure why I am bothering as there is no guarantee I will get anything out of it.

Running is going well. Started once I had polished of the last of the Moet at Christmas and is now starting to get serious. I have dropped some serious kilos and the pace is picking up, the gym at work is a handy training tool. I am planning on doing a half marathon in July to kick start my marathon prep for the Melbourne Marathon in October.

So I haven't been reading or commenting much elsewhere. Apologies, but I don't really even have time for twitter these days. I promise to catch up in about 2012.

Right, I'm off. Got a tax return and an assignment to do.

Moet Christmas!

So I was officially redundant on the 24/12. Merry Christmas!

I had about 6 months of contract work lined up, which would have paid nicely but been a bit of a headfk.

So when I got the call at about 10am on the 24th, from a major luxury car manufacturer offering me a job, I rolled into Christmas a relaxed man with a nice big redundancy payout in the bank.

Christmas came and went through the bottom of a couple of bottles of Moet, then off to Phillip Island with some friends for a holiday and NYE. A small holiday apartment with 4 adults and 3 kids under 3 is not ideal, but a couple more bottles of Moet and 3 slabs of Boags sorted that out.

Last week was supposed to be a relaxing final holiday before kicking into the new job. Lots was planned, but the little monster got ill with a nasty fever so the week was pretty much a write-off. The only thing we did was watch Avatar at 8:30pm last Sunday night.

Work looks like it is going to be interesting, most importantly they have a REALLY IMPRESSIVE cafeteria. Now I just have to negotiate myself a company car.

The frog returns!

The green frog is back, check it out at http://frogofgreen.blogspot.com/.

I got stuff and did other stuff!

Whoa, big weekend just gone!

Not big like in the old days, which would have meant starting drinking Wednesday and finishing sometime Sunday night. But big in adult ways befitting the new mature me.

It started Saturday arvo. My parents were down from the country and staying with us so they could look after Sophasaurus on Saturday night. They owed me a few presents so we agreed they could buy me a new bbq. Dad and I ducked out to get one which became a saga in itself.

We went to a big department store with a specific bbq in mind. Black steel 4 burner, nothing flash just a good solid sausage blackener. While looking at the display models we noticed the 6 burner was EXACTLY the same price as the 4 burner and as bigger is always better we decided to go the 6 burner.

To cut a very long story short, after much stuffing around where they had stock, then didn't have stock and other stores wouldn't hold stock, we got a guy to say they had one and he would have it at the loading bay waiting for us. He even went so far as to tell us how the other staff were well meaning but just didn't know how to really look for stuff. So we paid our money and headed around to the loading bay.

As Dad and I stood in the bay watching our new mate load the bbq boxes onto a pallet jack, Dad said to me "looks like you are getting a stainless steel one afterall". I didn't particularly want a stainless steel bbq, but they are more expensive I wasn't going to argue. I then looked a bit closer at the box and realised that not only had they given us the stainless one, but it was also the next model up from what we brought = WIN. No wonder they have stock control issues!

I always wanted a barbie big enough to cook a person in! It is the next model up as it has the recessed wok burner, rather the raised wok burner lid.

Once we got the bbq home it was time for a quick shower before the wife I barrelled out to the Bluestone Restaurant in the city for our anniversary dinner. We started with a drink in the bar before a beautiful meal accompanied by some nice Champagne and a glass of red. Post dinner was a bar hop (to stay out of the rain) until we found a nice lounge bar for some post dinner cocktails. Finishing with a not so fun 25 min queue for a taxi home. All in all a very nice night out with a beautiful woman.

Sunday started slowly but quickly built up speed with furious bbq building. It took a couple of hours and a couple of attempts, but I finally got it together. Just in time as my BIL and SIL stopped by for a couple of hours with their two kids. They left early enough that I was able to undertake the day's most important mission - console hunting.

I decide a few weeks ago that I was going to buy either a PS3 or an Xbox. The problem was, which one do I buy? I hassled friends, family and game store clerks looking for advice and at different times was 100% committed to each console. Logic was pointing me clearly in the direction of the PS3 but my gut was telling me I would get more use out of an Xbox. Even standing in the store having traded all my PS2 stuff I was still vacillating back and forth until I finally went with the gut and got an Xbox. Now I just need to buy a Sony Bravia TV and get a free PS3.

Dinner Sunday night was a bbq on the new barbie with my parents, followed by a couple of hours playing James Bond on the Xbox. It's almost a relief to be back at work this morning.

The excruciating minutia of life

Been effing busy lately, what with mo growing, job hunting and exam studying.

The mo is coming along nicely, most of you are checking http://magnumallstars.blogspot.com/ so I won't waste anymore space here on it.

Job hunting is progressing. I have missed out on a couple, one because I was selling an I.T. Manager and they were after more of an I.T. lackey. They were happy to have a manager, they just didn't want to pay for one. The other job they decided they didn't need anyone, I would not be surprised to receive a panicked call from them in the coming months.

I have a couple of other irons in the fire and there is a good chance my redundancy date will be extended or I will be able to contract for a couple of months at an exorbitant rate.

So things are happening. Slowly, but that's better than not at all.

I have done my last exam for the year, which is pleasant to get out of the way. I need to get more disciplined in my study. Each subject takes 12 weeks and has two assignments and an exam. The assignments usually cover one or two weeks of the study and the exam all 12 weeks. Typically I only do the reading required for the assignments during the 12 weeks and then the week before the exam I take 3-4 days and do all 12 weeks study. It works when I am only doing 1 subject a semester, but it's stressful and I probably don't do as well as I could.

I am going to jump to two subjects a semester next year (so I can get this bloody thing finished faster), so I will need to develop some kind of weekly study plan. The xbox I am thinking of buying may not be conducive to those plans.

So I have been busy, busy, busy. Fortunately over the last month or two I have also had time for socialising, catching up with Besso, Barnes, GuruBob, Havock and Lermontov. I have eaten at some nice restaurants including the flash Middle Brighton Baths. I have a work dinner at Donovans later this week and then a combined birthday/anniversary dinner at what looks like a nice restaurant on Saturday night (not naming it as the Good Lady Naut may read this). Finally the Good Lady Naut and I will wrap up the month with my work Christmas party at the Amora Hotel in Sydney.

All that and Sophasaurus learnt to crawl a week ago so we now can't take our eyes off her for a second.