The Sportsball Traditions

One's past fortnight has been punctuated with sportsball traditions.

The first was the annual ANZAC day watching at one's residence, with Sneaky Pete, and The Great Sandro putting in their traditional appearance at the event. Salsa Girl also continued her tradition of recent years of watching alongside and, dare I say it, getting caught up in the parochial tribalism along with the rest of us.

While a drawn result is a fine tradition that one believes belongs in the sport, one was left feeling a little flat, and even Salsa Girl was questioning - "is that allowed?!?"

One's other brush with footy tradition was this Friday past. It was, however, a change in tradition, with circumstances and work weariness resulting in only Salsa Girl and oneself partaking in watching the traditional rivalry in a quiet, laid back comfort of our own lounging room. The relaxed atmosphere did not last for very long with the resultant match keeping one on edge for most of it's duration - including a point with nary 4 minutes to go when one's racing heart was audible to the room!
In the end things did calm down when a true and just result was reached.

This weekend did also continue another long-standing tradition with One making the traditional regular journey to the ancestral home to make adjustments to Freeloading Mum's printer.

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But the Tales Came Back, the Very Next Year

So, it has been a year to the day of hiatus for The Tales. This has been a long enough span for one to have a garnered a sense of their lack, with the conclusion that one shall once again be regaling you with regular Cautionary Tales.

Now, to catch everyone up, here are the high mid and lowlights of the missing year, in more or less chronological order:

• One's place of prominence in the nuptials of Pirate Dave and LED - particularly in the karaoke vows scene
  
  
• One’s ongoing stressful tussles with printers
  
  
• Farewelling Piggy with BestFriendSincePrep, Uncle Col and various other high school alumni
  
  
• The second annual hosting of Mt Disappointment at StumpyRudolph's since it restarted - it seems this is becoming an annual event much like The Tales
  
  
• One’s becoming a permanent fixture at the new workplace after three and one half years living on the crumbs of rolling contracts
  
  
• Further stressful tussles with printers
  
  
• The addition of Harvey to our family after a years wait on the production of this new hybrid wonder.
  
  
• An annual visit down South to My Guitarist
  
  
• A dodgy knee issue of One’s resolved by this new thing called an exercise regime
  
  
• Catching up with Mr Gates after some 30 odd years
  
  
• The continuing saga of stressful printer tussles
  
  
• The stressful journey to a Magpies premiership
  
  
• A bout of shingles brought on by unknown stress factors
  
  
• Freeloading Mum celebrating her 80th milestone
  
  
• Attending the NYE fireworks (early version) in the city with Hulk and Salsa Girl
  
  
• Yet another holiday week on the Berm
  
  
• A busy work schedule with new libraries, major upgrades, and, of course, printers
  
  
• Handy Dad miraculous coming out of a fall through the patio roof with naught but a few scratches and bruises, and maybe some lessons learned about capabilities of older gentlemen on ladders, and roofs. Maybe.
  
  
• Sportsball season starting again far too soon.
  
  
• New varieties of stressful printer tussles

So there you have it, the foundation for the restart of regular Tales posting. Only time will tell if One will be able to maintain this punishing ambitious annual publication schedule.

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Catching Up

So One is once again faced with having to catch up on happenings by having a catching up post which details all of One's catching up of recent times and should, hopefully, catch us all up on all things catch-upable.

We start our Tale many weekends in the past...

Suits You to Catch Up

First was the occasion of a fancy suit fitting in preparation for the incoming nuptials festival for Pirate Dave. It was an enjoyable endeavour but one does have to bak at describing it as excellent service when such terms as concealment, de-accentuate, hide, and work-around, were used so extensively during One's segment of the fitting.

Catching Up with Dromana Queen

The very next day Salsa Girl and I made a long haul drive to assist Hulk in attending a peer's birthday party. There was food and fun and also our first, and last, beach frolic of the summer, accompanied by the chatter of the teeth of many tweens that refused to exit the water.

Continuing into the next week...

Caught up by printers

One has been relieved to be entering the final stages of one's infinite printer rollout at work. However one did, after a hard days printering, find oneself caught up in a troubleshooting visit to attempt to deal with Freeloading Mum's home printer conundrum. Needless to say, an episode of madness ensued.

And the weekend...

Gardening catch up

One has gotten behind in One's maintenance of the garden and so it was that one caught up on the task by the expediency of having BestFriendSincePrep scour away the existing garden and commence a complete rebuild.

A Birthday board game to catch up on plays

For One's spawning celebrations this year I exercised the well known rule that guests must play whatever game I choose - whether they like it or not! In this case I rolled out Falling Sky a game of Caesar and the Gauls, for the first time since 2019. Pirate Dave won again - even though he had gone home and his tribe ran as a scripted opponent - so I shall be putting it away for another four years.

The gaming to dos...

Catching the Space Bug again...

The Tuesday Knights roleplaying group that meets on Wednesdays, commenced a new game that is a return to one's favourite - Traveller.

Catching a moment...

One, sadly was at a commemorative for a work associate - a fellow IT Man In LibraryLand - who passed far too early. One had bantered IT on many, many occasions over the years with him and sought advice on many a topic when in tricky IT situations. His full life story was quite a humbling experience and one can see that his family and friends will miss him dearly. Vale John.

The weekend again...

Catching the imagination...

One has long imagined reclaiming a part of one's desk from the accoutrements of working from home that have long laid claim to such prized realestate. Thus time was finally found to undertake a desk rearrangement and now the WFH things are the temporary items moved into and out of place as required. And now the gloriously revealed desktop space is finally awash with piles of gaming paraphernalia.

A quick catch of the fleetingly in town...

Circumstances aligned well enough for One to make a catch-up with Lord of the Small Fries. This was also blessed with the attendance of The Administrator, Supervisor Grand Chief K, and The Fox. Much was discussed in a throwback to our great days and it shall have to happen much more frequently.

And back at the old stomping ground...

Catching the changes

One attended an IT in libraries meeting at ones old home in Sandringham. While there One was lucky enough to catch up with Criket Cutter, Sonja Roster Queen,  Country Girl, and The Maple Maverick. One decided to head North and stomp around Brighton some as well, managing to catch Longstride L and The Historical Menace in the building.

So there you have it. Did you catch it all?

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A Magic Birthday

 Firstly, let me acknowledge the tsunamilanche of birthday well wishes one received whilst one was engaged in birthday activities elsewhere.  They are by no means required but they do warm the cockles of one's heart - creating a sort of tight hot feeling in the chest.

Anyway, on to the events of the birthday weekend.

Things commenced with Salsa Girl informing one to be decently dressed for Friday dinner - as if the mucking about pants one drapes oneself in for workdays would not pass some sort of muster.

The mystery deepened as, throughout said dinner, Hulk repeatedly just had to check nothing at the front door and assured one that definitely no one from the family was expected.

You can imagine one's surprise when Sneaky Pete appeared at the door to assume Hulk control responsibilities.

Salsa Girl then promptly extracted us from the chatterboxing Hulk and whisked one away to attend none other than a Magic event.

One was sorely disappointed when, rather than playing the card game that is a mainstay of one's gaming life with the likes of Gavman and Elfboy, one was forced to endure a highly entertaining, interesting, and amazing show of prestidigitation. The covid-related bonus was that being singled out to assist because of birthday-ness did not require one to leave ones comfortable seat as everything was done via shouting and extenda-claws.

The next day - the actual date - dawned with  a relaxed morning of mandatory traditional birthday cheescake eating, and one buying one's presents from Hulk the proprietor of the lounge room Present Shop. The remainder of the day passed with one indulging oneself in whatever manner one chose, which this year including doing the weekly grocery shop.

Sunday saw the gathering of the Legion clan and the traditional handing of the insulting birthday card from Freeloading Mum to oneself - although one does wonder why Sneaky Pete who also has a birthday around this time received a card full of glowing and loving sentiment?

In any case a fun-filled legion-time was had before all headed home to sleep the sleep of the afternoon-nap deprived.

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The Big Outside

 So in this past week one has had to return to the big outside for applying one's many-yeared IT expertise in plugging cables in underneath desks.

It involved a joyous commute in which getting a set to oneself was a guaranteed experience, and given one had a whole block of seats to oneself, the joy of spreading out without having to be on bag-moving watch was also indulged.

Scrambling around under desks, groping in cable hutches, and hefting IT equipment from place to place did remind one of the value of ones education and made one further appreciate the extensive use one had been able to make of Sidekick for such tasks over the past semi-decade. It also occasioned one to realise that one's one year redundaversary had passed at the beginning of the month - a short musing on one's being a bit better off was cut short by having to resume jiggling cables through joinery.

One decided to relax from the strains of doing actual work by hosting, along with Salsa Girl and Hulk, a Legion family gathering to mark Freeloading Mum's birthday. One relaxed to the soothing sounds of Hulk and her cousins thrashing out on One's drums and Hulks recorder and accompanying themselves with continuous avant-garde vocal performance. One's eardrums were still relaxed hours after the event had wrapped up.

One is looking forward to recovering from the gathering by crawling under desks in the week ahead.

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8 years, 10 years, & 8 years

So, for the past few months, One has had most of One's time consumed with work - of the From Home type - intertwined with educatory duties, causing One to, once again, neglect the Tales.
As well there have been several anniversereal events occurring that required One's attention and diligent application in the night before the exam kind of way.

Anniversary the first was the celebration of Hulk having attained 8 years. It was celebrated with a sprawling affair constituting our very own mystery - Harry Potter and the Sinister Simulacrum - replete with clue finds, classes, much table quidditch, and the stunningly original revelation that the new teacher Professor Robot Automa was in fact the Sinister Simulacrum and not Hulk's new automated lizard present that all clues pointed towards. (One has a mind to shop one's virtuoso script around Hollywood).

Preparations for this event included much creation of decorations which number among them these Every Flavour Beans, with attitude:

Beans with attitude...

Other preparations included a month of vigorous beard growing by oneself in order to get that Dumbledore look. It was successful on the axis of white colouring but the length was several feet short. Unfortunately Hulk as demanded that One keep growing said beard until it reaches the requisite length, which has resulted in much amusement in one's many video meetings. 

Anniversary the second was to celebrate the 10 years that Salsa Girl and I have been together. With all potential minders quarantined away from us it was celebrated joyfully as a family with Hulk cramping our style. There was a gastronomical event or two one evening feast and one a banquet that went for most of the weekend. Having not succumbed to any more grump towards one another during seclusion than usual it looks like Salsa Girl and I have another 10 (or more) wonderful years to look forward to.

The Third Anniversary was the anniversary of ones father's days which now number 8.
Astute readers will note that this number coincides with the Hulk number! Living in these apocryphal times has taught me that when numbers align like that it must mean something of great import, and that shadowing figures must be manipulating things behind the scenes!

This celebration was more subdued coming on the heels of the previous one and was interspersed with a video call to Handy Dad and Freeloading Mum, wherein they proceeded to ridicules one's beard with statements to the effect that One now resembled Handy Dad.

So now that these events are all over One should have plenty of time to .... ummm...

Oh no! 

Salsa Girl's birthing anniversary is coming up!!!!!!!

Excuse me, I have to get to it. We'll talk later.

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The Paradox of Holiday Freetime

It would seem, on the face of it, that One having ample holiday time at home should enable the copious posting to The Tales which is the stuff of legends from the dim dark ages of 2008.

However, as it transpires, there is a distinct lack of posting about the few happenings of this restful time.
Happenings such as:

• The annual Star Wars pilgrimage with Sidekick

• Providing several days of nurturing care at home for Hulk who's illness was extended mysteriously
  
• Commencement of the Tuesday Knights new game - Blades in The Dark. Now with added Miasmakat. Including the group deciding to choose the gang type One advised against, *twitch*, sigh.
  
• Hulk's last day of kinder including concert in which she was one of the loudest voices. One was surprised to see a graduation cap being employed.
  
• Xmas day filled with Mousetrap and Botanical picnics.
  
• Boxing day lunch at Freeloading Mum and Handy Dad's. Replete with cousins and uncles and aunts and the touch of sadness that is an aunts early Alzheimers.
  
• A 50th birthday dinner for The Great Sandro with yours truly, Sneaky Pete, Salsa Girl, and Hulk as the requested guests of honour.
  
• Several rushed last days of work before the big holiday break - everyone loves stats.
  
• New Years' Eve beach birthday parties then early evening Rummy contests - with One being the year's humble awesome champion.
  
• A four day visit from Doctor David.
  
• Building inspections for the repair of the great dripping roof saga.
  
• Backyard camping at Nana's, wherein' Hulk had her longest staying up ever due to the excitement of Midnight Feast and the unexpectedly high light levels of a suburban camping sky.

One wonders when the pace of the year is going to pick up a little...

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Four XMASes and A Picnic

The week just past has been a whirlwind of celebration from which one has barely survived.


It kicked off with the annual user group XMAS lunch which is always interrupted by the meeting that "has" to occur beforehand.
Lunch and meeting were ably supplied by Jeza, Nicks Fan and Vivacious Em.
Although one was amused that one's two-glasses-of-red-deep attendance at the post lunch executive meeting was met with surprise by President S, given one's reputation for professionalism in any state. Luckily Sis attended in a state of solidarity with my choices.
However one may have to give some credence to kharmic debt as said executive meeting consumed the remainder of the afternoon.


XMAS the second was a lunchtime celebration of our Strategy Teams achievements for the year. Whilst Sonja Roster Queen ably led appropriate celebrations the Strategic absence of Mr Prada and Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum were noted for their permanent records.


With a days rest one was ready to tackle XMAS the third - Library XMAS!!
It was wonderfully organised by Sonja Roster Queen and Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum in just the style one approves - laden with food and drink.
Much conversation was had including a sizable investment in time debating the finer points of Star Wars canon with Nemesis and Psycho Chicken, who I'm sure have both now corrected their obstreperous views.


On a smaller scale, XMAS the fourth was the raising of the XMAS tree at home with Hulk taking command. The placement of the first present beneath the tree was nigh immediately followed by pleading to open it and see why it felt the way it did. Having secured an earnest promise that this would be the only early opened present I deigned to allow the opening. Suffice to say one was not pleased with the post opening: Is that all! Do you have another one?


Which brings us to the Picnic. The annual-ish picnic organised by Spare Legion, this time at the delightfully Pound Bend. Also in attendance were Badger, Hector the Nazi, and Legion3.

All in all a busy time which is why one is looking forward to a Sunday involving only shopping and visiting Freeloading Mum for her annual birthday computer support session.
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Going Back to my Old School

This Saturday past Salsa Girl, Hulk and oneself returned to one's old primary school, Viewbank Primary, for it's 50th anniversary celebrations.

Of course we first visited BestFriendSincePrep to see his new house which is located quite nearby - and by new house I refer to the one he has been in for nigh on three years without having us over.

Eventually we made our way up to the school and explored the grounds to see what had changed - and the large amount that was the same. We also had rather a futile attempt to locate any old class mates in the throng, which proves that any occasional bouts of laziness one may exhibit are generational in nature.

We did run into Handy Dad revisiting his school committee days, Freeloading Mum, Legion 4, and numerous members of the BestFriendSincePrep clan.

Hulk enjoyed herself exploring many things and even the obligatory trip to the library was made - although one was sorely disappointed to find the reading mezzanine space was now given over to several dozen computers.

All in all a good day spent marvelling at how much things have shrunk since the late seventies.
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Party and Sick

Hmmm, it appears that this post is become somewhat like a pair of Young Ones episodes.

One has neglected several weeks of blog posting under the duress of having been suffering insufferably under a most debilitating dose of man-cold. In fact the tail end is still hanging around which is why I will have to do nothing other than laze around all weekend.

So, what has been happening? You ask.

This weekend last Several weekends past Salsa Girl and I had the surreal experience of going out together, to dinner, well before Hulk's settle time - all thanks to the brave generosity of Freeloading Mum, who settles Hulk herself and claimed "it was no trouble and thanks for the wifi access".

Our out was to the Huck's party for Doom and Non-Gamin' Megan. As they had the temerity to be monopolised by their other guests, one was able to have long overdue catch-ups with The Fungi Lady, Amoeba, and Agent Smith.

All in all a great night out - even if the end of it was a tad fuzzy...

Otherwise it has been pretty much business and man-cold, as usual, lots of work, lot's of whinging and a few more books knocked off.

Once one's health returns then you should all expect the Tales to return to it's usual bounty of efflusient, sparkling and incisive wit, comment and malaproprianisation.

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Guardians of the Galaxy & Gridlinked by Neal Asher

Today's post is about the consumption of media various.


Guardians of the Galaxy

This one was a birthday present from Freeloading Mum. And by that I mean that one traditionally spends one's birthday money on b-grade sci-fi and fantasy that one has missed in the previous year.

Well this turned out to be a fun little romp very much in the vein of The Fifth Element level of sci-fi. Thankfully for one's tastes there was very little superhero-ish in there although sequel talk involves many spandexians apparently.

All in all a solid 4 star fun pic with the only real cringe moment being the hero's put down of the villain at the end.

I look forward to watching mother's other present in the near future, in glorious 3D - the much vaunted by The Real Greg Dean, Pacific Rim. And I tell you if it isn't every bit the cosmically mind blowing experience that The Greg has promised there'll be some mighty vengeance coming his way!


Gridlinked by Neal Asher

This one was my latest read and jumped to the head of the pack on the recommendation of Scary Spice.

It was quite an enjoyable future space opera with loads of wow tech and obscure aliens.
Unfortunately having recently read Ian M Banks Consider Phelbas one was struck by apparent parallels and coincidii, in military tech and delves underground after artifacts -  to the point that one could joke about it being extremely well written fan-fiction.

That aside though it was a solid 3 and a half stars and I will undoubtably dip into the Polity universe again in The Future.
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Spin me Right Round...

... Like a Record baby

So last weekend was one's 45 birthday.

I had a smallish gathering with the minor theme of "Bring a 45".

There was some excellent catering by Salsa Girl assisted by Freeloading Mum - although I do have to take issue with the idea that I had to give everyone a piece of MY cheesecake birthday cake!

Being the theme instigator I dutifully hauled my pristine collection of 45s from the late 80s downstairs - about 50 of them in all. Amongst their number where such gems as Samantha Fox - Touch Me, of which, with my newly acquired mature status, one is not ashamed (although probably 15 year old Phill should be).

Several others provided their own input including ElfBoy with an extensive compilation collection; Legion2 with his hauntingly familiar collection (in that shared bedroom growing up kind of way); and Badger with some prime Brit Punk. I was, however, disappointed to see no Smith & Wessons brought along.

Badger's standout contribution was providing the whole audio and phonographic equipment, without which we would have been unable to hear these gems of the songwriters craft. Impressively the turntable was a vintage 80s Marantz still in perfect working order.

Dropping the ball on the theme front were BestFriendSincePrep and StumpyRudolph, representing one's school friends neither of them had any knowledge of their 45s, or indeed of which number drink they were up to.

Representing the creative side of music were past (and future??) band mates FridgePower and Judge Mingus, along with their own personal creations.

Most parts of the party went well, although Hulk did insist on being sensitive to strangers and require alternating bouts of individual care from Salsa Girl and oneself which was the sole reason there are parts of the party that one cannot recall.

After most had taken leave Legion2 and Pirate Dave (returning from DragonMim's overshadowing 50th event which kept many others away) stayed long into the evening playing the Magic card game and helping one with ones overabundance of whisky. In fact I believe I may have been playing the game on muscle memory at one point and events and my thinking became decidedly fuzzy around the 1:00 am mark.

All in all a most excellent occasion.
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A Very Important Party

It seems to me that a very important party is quite the fitting topic as one stumbles into one's 450th post to The Tales.



Several weeks ago Salsa Girl, Hulk and oneself made the rather long Southwards journey to partake of the Libraries celebration of Xmas. After some initial trepidation Hulk decided to cut loose on the dance floor with Groovy Spirits and indulge in much important running backwards and forwards.
We partook of some yummy food and headed home at a decent hour and definitely well before the karaoke was begun.


But that was not the very important party.


Last week was the User group Xmas lunch. It was preceded by a meeting but that is not one's focus for the day. There was once again an abundance of food available and I feel that the library was well represented by oneself, Sidekick and Supervisor Grand Chief K as together we made Bayside the clear leader in the consumption stakes.
One also took the opportunity to give Young Jim a telling off for his non-attendance at gaming this past half year. He muttered a promise of 110% attendance in the new year and I let him off easy due to some excellent wine.
In the end a large part of the afternoon was spent in important networking activities until the wine ran out and we ambled on home.


But that was not the very important party.


On the weekend past - or so - Salsa Girl, Hulk and oneself made our way to one's ancestral home for the important event of Freeloading Mum's 70th birthday celebrations. Of course all of Legion was in attendance as well as Handy Dad and many friends of the family.
Unfortunately young Hulk was feeling a little crowd-shy so we had minimal time to circulate, although one did manage to fit in an impromptu speech and several rounds of cake.

The party was, of course followed up in subsequent days with the gifting of Freeloading Mum's asked for electronic device and the resultant tech support from yours truly to get said device into a workable state.

All in all this time of year does seem to through up many a laudable reason for having a very important party.
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Hulk: Year One

Several weekends ago saw the big celebration of Hulk reaching the one year milestone.

Everything went more or less according to the plan Salsa Girl and I had hatched up - well as according to plan as things can go when one has a dozen guest children involved, one doesn't really schedule in "and then the children shall run riot for an hour".

We had great help from our visiting guests Doctor David and Grannie A, Freeloading Mum put in a fair bit of time as well and Grandma J made the great sacrifice of spending most of her time cuddling Hulk.

All seemed to have a good time and Hulk herself breezed through a napless afternoon with nary a grizzle.

The only downside seems to be a disturbing amount of post-party illness amongst the part guests - oneself included. Hence the great delay in posting this missive about the soiree. One suspects that Hulk may have used her Special Attack again, but really it could have been any of the many disease vectors that were running riot about the place.


Now in the time that has passed since the big do Salsa Girl and I have been treated to the horror of Hulk beginning to experiment with full mobility, including much totterings and standings and reachings.
I shudder in fear for all our delicate things about the house.
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Hulk - The Early Weeks

When one began composing this post it was rather naively entitles - Hulk, the Early Days.

Well since then the piecemeal nature at which one was able to add ones brilliant thoughts to the draft had made me believe that I was looking at having to re title it as - Hulk. Year One. While one would surely have enjoyed basking in the kudos this would have brought from such graphical story telling literati as Zombie Monkey and The Real Greg Dean, it has eventuated that my deadline has stretched out to mere weeks.

In any case many are the things that have occurred during the early days weeks of the time of Hulk.

One has been head down in reading materials wide and sundry - finishing long bookmark-laden tomes and making visible progress on one's to-be-read stacks, various. In fact all but the nigh insurmountable penultimate Wheel of Tedium volume have fallen beneath the scythe of my reading gaze.

One has had occasion to watch many a late night movie and has begun filling in may of the glaring holes in ones experience of the past few decades cinema. For example one now knows that Tom Hanks gets off the island.

One has even managed to make some small steps of progress in ones gaming projects in a way that may even make Fantomas believe that they could become real when one next attends the Tuesday Knights.

One has had several meetings in passing with Salsa Girl and even shared several meals.

Of course there has been some time spent with young Hulk. Why we've had special daddy-daughter time watching the mighty pies (and another team that looks similar but seems to have lost the mighty bit).

Hulk unable to bear the skill errors.

We also tried our hand at bonding over some solo gaming - managing to see off those pesky Persians at Thermopylae and winning the Battle of the Five Armies for the Orcs.

There have been visit from relatives various, a handful of friends, and late night hallucinations of the interesting kind.

As predicted by FridgePower one has been able to indulge in the ancient art of poo smearing - although much of the training I undertook cleaning up after The Tiger has gone to waste as there has been a suspicious lack of any positing (the nice word for baby vomiting) particularly of the furball kind.

In amongst all this Legion2 and the BrotherStealer have seen fit to try and steal my hard-earned spotlight by delivering their second a full six weeks early. One can only be glad that Freeloading Mum and Handy Dad have been away all this time so there would be no unseemly squabbling for the favour that is rightfully mine.

In any case this disjointed report has brought you up to date with the trials and tribulations we have been undergoing for the past few days weeks.

It only gets easier from here they tell me.

And then they snigger.
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Shelving Plans due to baby

So, with the nigh imminent arrival of our adorable Hulk, it was decided by Salsa Girl and oneself that we'd better start some of that preparing.

Therefore last weekend was given over to baby shopping in the morning followed by the execution of our most excellent plan for shelving installation to safe-terise our vast collection of laundry items.

We invited Handy Dad and Freeloading Mum around for afternoon tea, some footy watching, and a little bit of "some help putting these shelves up" - knowing that afternoon tea would ensure that Freeloading Mum would bring Handy Dad and tools.

Of course no plan can survive contact with the cunning of Handy Dad who promptly set about instructing me in what to do in order that I could do it all myself!
He then partook of conversation and afternoon tea in between bouts of advice before they headed home.

The last laugh is on him though as several hours later - once the shelves were finished - I sat down to enjoy the footy with all of the chips and drinks to myself.
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The Strain and The Fall

No the title of this post is not referring to any unfortunate results of the festivities of one's just-passed birthday week.

Instead it relates to the last two books that one recently finished reading - The Strain and The Fall are two books by famed moving picture director Guillermo del Toro. They are the first two parts of his vampire trilogy as recommended to me by Groovy Spirits via Mr Prada. I found them to be a quick and entertaining read that was reminiscent of the very cinematic oeuvre of Matthew Reilly. I await my reserved copy of the final instalment to arrive from the library.


Speaking of the birthday week it has gone rather well - despite Legion2 stealing most of the glory with his 40th.

As it turns out when turning 42 the meaning of life is friends - or rather Facebook Friends as one received bountiful birthday wishes on the actual day. I was also pleased to see that one's birthday twin CC celebrated hard enough for both of us.

The birthday week produced many wishes and a pile of chocolate as cake substitute from Days of our Libraries rightfully shamed for her culinary oversight.

Finally a day of presents arrived on Friday, although one did have to gift many of them to oneself - those being the latest supplements in one's favourite gaming line, the Commands and Colors(sic) series.
Further gifts awaited one's return home with the arrival of an overseas order of gaming cards and the special gifts from Salsa Girl.

Early Saturday morning BestFriendSincePrep did his part in making one's birthday special by thrashing me soundly in Memoir'44 Online all the way from Denver - and whilst preparing dinner.

The birthday week was topped off with drinks and nibbles at a local establishment attended by the likes of Salsa Girl, Freeloading Mum, Handy Dad, Legion2, and Badger.


All in all a good birthday week - although a little light on the feasting side, which one shall correct in only another 51 weeks.
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Xmas Parties, Various

One has spent the past several days getting well and truly into the Xmas spirit - well the feasting side of it at least, the rest shall have to come later.

It all began on Friday with the very important end of year Xmas lunch for the user group at our suppliers headquarters. Once again the user group insisted on holding a meeting beforehand, but finally after several hours drawn-out with productivity we were treated in the manner to which we have become accustomed over the years. Many were in attendance - Supervisor Grand Chief K even put in an appearance to make sure that I received my just desserts.

After waddling home I was soon off to another evening of food and cards at the Double Jays with Salsa Girl by my side. The feasting was not too excessive there as I had an unexpected feeling of fullness part-way through the meal. Sigh, there's always next time I guess.


Saturday was the big event. The Library Xmas Party.

This years soiree was being hosted by Kiwichick (who's husband lucked out on not being able to use the get out of party card he earned by attending last years event). The catering was done by many with Days of our Libraries having many a hand in the comestibles.

The night did include a rather embarrassing tribute to the recent Facebook relationship-status change of the good Salsa Girl and oneself, replete with gifts unasked for but appreciated greatly - especially by The Tiger who commenced sleeping on our new serving dish the moment it was revealed to her.



The latest Xmas partying occurred when Salsa Girl and I made the trek to the family demesne to celebrate Freeloading Mum's birthday. There was a dash of Xmas thrown in due to known Xmas day absences. A magnificent feast was on offer, including 5 desserts (which only count as 3 as one mixed several into the same bowl).
There was rather a lot of post feast tiredness to be dealt with on return home before getting the evening meal squared away.


In unrelated news, one's past month of increased exercise regime appears to be having no effect at all.
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The Silliest of Things

No, one is not referring to FridgePower's futile attempt to win a blog flame-war with The Tales.

I refer instead to my attending of the annual day of Silly Games at my old Uni gaming club.

Of course the whole day ended up being quite the silly affair. One's brilliant plan of taking a day off ended up encouraging one to frittering away time and then be caught short when crises multiple erupted at the library.

The next silly thing was making a "brief" stop at Freeloading Mum's to provide some IT Support.
So after dinner I finally arrived at the Uni club to find the room closed up and darkened.
Luckily after a short wait several gamers returned and the day was underway again.
Unluckily the majority of gamers went off to commence a short game of Nerf Warfare which yours truly had to decline due to my well-known knee issues.
The remainder picked up their ongoing game of Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition - a pursuit that is indeed quite a silly one. With nothing else going on I proceeded to watch the final three hours of their game much of which was filled with players requesting that other players take their turns quickly so they could "end this thing and go home". The hole experience confirmed for me that the game was one I would happily never attempt to play.
In the end my vain hope of players becoming available for my own silly game disappeared as all the players of the game left immediately once it was completed at 10.40pm, and none of the nerfers showed any sign of returning for my game's scheduled 9pm start.
One decided that it was far to silly to hang around waiting for players and promptly took oneself home again.



A further event of silliness occurred over the weekend when I decided to go to the footy with The Great Sandro and narrowly escaped confrontation when he spent much of the game slyly talking out the side of his mouth at a rather loud fellow pies supporter. Luckily said supporter failed to take it personally and there was no problem at all.


The final event of silliness is, of course, one's return to work today.
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The Final Step

So during all that wonderful holiday time that I spent with Salsa Girl I decided it was time that I took the final step.

I awoke one morning several weeks ago, took a deep breath, steeled myself and then took the action that had been on my mind for the latter part of the holiday period.

That's right, I decided to stop using my pedometer. For all it's interesting insight into one's exercise regime, my use of it had become a tad obsessive.

With the act done - and several weeks without it under my belt - I feel as if a great burden has been lifted from me.

In the end my daily averages were around 7,500 steps for working days dropping down to 6,500 during this recent holiday a slight bit less than the recommended 10,000 per day.
Despite that I think I have built some good walking habits from the whole exercise and in fact the scales at Freeloading Mum's say that I lost several kilos over the Xmas break so one must be maintaining them.

I dare say I'll saddle up with a pedometer later this year should work participate in the global challenge again so that shall test whether I have continued my habits without the constant company of the infernal device.
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