It was 20 years ago today...

That sergeant Tuck and the band had their final play...

Yes that's right dear readers - the Malaclypse III final gig was a score of years ago.

Mal 3 was one's 7 piece ensemble from uni days that after several glorious years was broke asunder by musical differences.

One's co-conspirators in the band were: Tuck, Leader Robin, Judge Mingus, FridgePower, My Guitarist, and Saxxy J.


So enjoy a small pictorial return to those heady days of alternative funk rock n jazz fusion punk.

Not the Final Gig, but close.

One powering through the Final Gig.

The Final Crowd.

The Final Set List

And remember:

We're bicycle bad guys, we've got blood on our minds.....

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The Sidekick Search

Those who have known me for a while will be aware of my alter ego spawned during the heady days of Malaclypse III in the company of the likes of FridgePower, Judge Mingus, My Guitarist, Tuck, and other assorted musos - Testosterone Man - possibly related to fervent pounding of drums and other rugged and manly pursuits.

In any case the lack of a sidekick has held me/him back in all endeavours for many a decade.

I have tried many avenues to protégée procurement:

• trials of Rhythm Section equals - Judge Mingus did not last long before soloing off on his own
• grow your own - knocked on the head by Salsa Girl as Hulk is apparently too young to be cruising the streets fighting crime
• recruitment - alas, while an awesome gaming addition, Young Jim, has proven rather reluctant on the whole smashing things to bits front. (and what's more he has a tendency to betrayal as evidenced by a 3 nil thrashing he once handed out to me while in league with Badger)
• pleading with Supervisor Grand Chief K for the necessary help in getting all my work demons defeated - repeatedly scoffed at and uncomprehendingly disbelieved about the amount of effort required to make librarians happy on the IT front

However recently the stars seem to have aligned. Not only have I managed to finally rid the library of the scourge of marketing for once and all, but the resulting employment gap has been deigned to be filled with an IT Sidekick!

Supervisor Grand Chief K did, however, make sure it was not all puppies and roses for me as she dropped the responsibility for the "Recruitment Process" into my lap. Hence I have been up to my neck in SeekSpam and resume reading for weeks now. Culminating in a day of interviews in which I had to suffer through Devil's Advocate always offering the other point of view, and other various moments of me not getting my whim. Honestly I don't know what I was thinking putting together that interview panel.

Still we are very close now and it shouldn't be long before I can strut out at work with a sidekick by my side (and slightly behind).

Of course we are local government so not long is probably next Autumn.
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Phorgetful Phorties

While it may seem that a significant change in age has also caused a significant change in the ability of yours truly to remember to keep these humble Tales updated on something of a regular schedule I'm here to present evidence to the contrary.

Nothing has been forgotten from these weeks of silence - except possibly where I left the thingo, you know the whatsit.

Anyway here is a sampling of some of the many things that have kept me too busy to blog.

• Work of course, and far too much of it. Although I did finally receive my birthday present of my very own minion. Ms Magpie herself was lucky enough to be the recipient of the great honour.
• a lovely conference dinner with a guest appearance from Madame President over from the land of the long white sheep.
• going live with a Library Management System upgrade
• putting in a live appearance at The Viking Hat GM's latest game. Lured in by the promise of the strong leadership of Exploding Ninja Pony.
• making a brief attendance at the conference's trade show aka pen and novelty scavenger hunt. Afterwards I decided to avail myself of the shopping in the city and was then caught in the torrential downpour. There's nothing like catching the train home literally dripping water everywhere. Luckily the book I was reading was a library book so I can just say it was all wrinklified when I borrowed it.
• an expedition to the games shop to spend my librarian gifted birthday present. I now have even more of "far too many games and books", yay.
• a poker night with Dubrovnik Hater and friends in which I unfortunately cleaned up on the last hand most likely causing myself to never be invited back (since eating all the nibbles would never cause that)
• shopping in the city with The Great Sandro. Looking for my birthday present from him - Rome (the TV series, not the city) - and reminiscing about the great time he had with the librarians at my party - I did tell you he's crazy didn't I?
• last minute gaming events organised at my place by Elfboy
• a day home sick almost dying from the latest strain of man-cold - the vestiges of which are still with me to this day
• going to "our first NAB cup footy game together" with The Great Sandro and spending the whole first quarter queuing outside the, currently named, Etihad stadium to find an almost empty arena once inside - no wonder I hate that place.
• beer and board games with Badger
• Tuck's first attendance at the regular Sunday games only to have me spend several hours assuring him that, yes there are usually other people here, when everyone else decided to only make the evening.
• playing pirates with the Tuesday night gamers
• going back into the shed at work to prepare another round of new computers
• being cornered and missing out on drinks and nibbles at our new catalogue product launch
• filling my house with people for the latest of our regular card tournaments - Couch Killer was well behaved this time and no furniture was harmed
  
• a much delayed family birthday lunch at which Legion3 produced dirty rotten lying scales for our regular brothers weigh off - pffft 3 extra kilos!!!
• a training day with lots of food and me being under the weather with resurfacing man-cold and nasty headache. Honestly I was only able to eat two peoples worth of free lunch I was that bad off.
• a last minute gathering of geeks with great attendance, conversation and results. All thanks to The Viking Hat GM for going to the effort to organise lazy gamers into action.
• a day of setting up new computers with my trusty minion at my side
• a fortuitous game cancellation allowing me time to actually prepare for said games next occurrence
  
• a trip for groceries ending with my being pelted by golfball sized hailstones in the car park and once again being drenched to dripping-point - a trend I am not liking.
• and finally having to write a long and involved blog catch-up post to get you all back up to speed.

So there you have it - not a sign of any forgetfulness or mis-remembering of actual events, but then again it was only yesterday...
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... The Day Geisha Girl and The Composer Were Married

Yesterday was spent having a wonderful time at the Zoo in celebration of the nuptuals of Geisha Girl and The Composer.

The ceremony began in glaring sunlight in the lush Japanese Garden and ended in light rain which helpfully covered any emotional tears that may have been shed - obviously only by those less rugged and blokey than I.

After the service Legion2, BrotherStealer and I had a ramble through the grounds and made an almost fruitless search for zoo animals. We found only giraffes, elephants and orangutans - even with the added searching skills of Tooticky and Usuakari all the other creature remained unfindable.

Giving up our search we returned for libraryland "cocktails" and some delicious snacks.

Shortly thereafter we were ushered inside the cosy Rainforest Room for the reception proper.

I was seated at a table with Legion2, BrotherStealer, Agent Smith, Tuck, and a good bunch of strangers. We all enjoyed some scintillating conversations and magnificent food.

Rugrat Twin and Amoeba shared the MCing and speechifying wonderfully, even seamlessly adding me into the toast after I was caught at the bridal table when it all started - although BrotherStealer was heard to remark that I had ruined yet another wedding.

After the main course I risked life, limb, and ruined knee, to give Rugrat Twin a twirl about the dance floor. She seemed happy to come away with both feet intact so I count it as a success.

Many others were in attendance including an amazingly uncamoed Camo Spice (whom I'd gamed with until ridiculous o'clock in the morning the night before) and most of the gaming and gothing geeks who knew the couple well.

The last official act of the evening was no strange cake cutting tradition but the completely appropriate merging of the lego collections of the happy couple to show their level of commitment to each other.

We all left the strangely animal-lite zoo at the end of the evening to head home happy and tired and with inexplicable soreness of the head.