Saturday 17th December 2012 - Day 306 - Friends, Luna Park, Picasso and Life.

Good Morning Friends,

Well, it's a little after midnight, and I realised that I have really fallen off the posting bandwagon, so thought I'd write a quick entry in my public diary.

Life has been good, and today saw me go into my former ship to be promoted to the rank of Petty Officer with effect 16 January 2012.......a short month before the end of my year of self-imposed sobriety.

The last week and a half (or so) since I last posted has been good and busy.  I have spent a great deal of time wandering around the city, where I took this picture of Sydney City Council's true opinion of the people of Sydney.

Talk about inappropriate opinions made into decorations!  I also managed to find a karoake partner while wandering through the Royal Botanic Gardens:



He wasn't really much of a backup singer, as you couldn't hear his vocals, but at least he was giving it a go!

So.....Last Wednesday night saw me having dinner with some friends, and I realised through my annoyance with one of my friends that I really use alcohol as a measure to tolerate some of the less savoury personality traits of a few of the people around me........and in the absence of alcohol, I find those particular traits somewhat frustrating to say the least!......enough said!

Then on Friday I caught up with Sarah P for a catch-up lunch and to meet her new son.  I took a couple of pictures on my walk across the bridge and to North Sydney, that I thought were quite good.  Sadly I was so caught up in conversation, that I completely forgot to get a picture of Sarah or Matix!

The view from the city side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.



 Looking across Lavender Bay from Milsons Point/North Sydney.

I then received a message from my mate Flip who invited me to have dinner with himself and another friend (Mick) who was down from Brisbane, so dinner was had with these fine upstanding gentlemen........conveniently close, in the pub across the road from my apartment building. :)

Saturday saw me catching up with my friend Casey before she flew out to Europe for 5 weeks on holiday (with Mick, as it where), then I met another friend, KC and we jumped on a ferry to Cockatoo Island to have a look at the Outpost Street Art exhibition, which was amazing.  I took a lot of pictures there, but will only post a couple that I like the most.

I thought this was amazing.....especially considering that if I were to stand against that wall, I wouldn't even come up to the chin of this character.

This is just good art! 

This is KC avoiding the camera! :)

 Once Again.....Just good art!

Saturday night saw me organise to go to a movie with Sarah S, but we both decided that the movies we could catch would finish too late for us, so went for a walk around the city/harbourfront instead which was great.  We wandered through Hyde Park, then into Martin Place, where we found Australia's biggest Christmas tree



The Tree and I.

Sarah and the Tree.

 

We then walked past Angel Place where I got the following picture.  Angel Place has a whole lot of bird cages hanging from wires above the street, which looks amazing:

Then Sarah and I walked along the waterfront by the rocks, then under the bridge on the city side:

(this goes without saying, but...) The Sydney Harbour Bridge, by night.

Sarah & the Opera House 

We then decided to call it a night, but to go to Luna Park on Sunday which was great. We walked through the city, then across and under the bridge, and arrived with enough time for me to get onto the Ferris Wheel...........before it started raining.  After I got off the Ferris Wheel, we had a look in Coney Island where Sarah had a turn on the giant slide, and we amused ourselves with the warped mirrors before heading home.

Under the bridge.

Arrival at Luna Park.

View from on the ferris wheel.

View OF the ferris wheel.....from the ferris wheel. 

Sarah inside Coney Island.



  On Monday, I caught up with my friend Holly for the first time in a while for tea, which was awesome, as we agreed to start running together the following morning.  God knows I need the exercise, but I managed to sleep in, and when I went running a bit later than we'd planned (thinking I was going to be exercising by myself), I ran into her as I got to the Botanic Gardens, so we ended up running back together regardless.......worked out well, methinks.

Tuesday was great, I went running with Holly again, then caught up with my mate Butts for coffee while on my way to HMAS Kuttabul for my fitting for my new uniforms.  Then Holly and I went out to Westmead Hospital to visit our friend Claws who has just given birth to her (and her husband, Chris's) second child, Ivy.  There must be something in the water as a lot of my friends seem to be procreating lately, and good on them I say :)

Claws and Ivy.

Wednesday saw me heading back to the base to pick up some wristbands for entry to Garden Island for NYE, then heading to the Picasso Exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales with Holly and Nicole. 



 It was great to get some exposure to a large collection of Picasso's art, but at one point we made of ourselves, the least appropriate people in the gallery, as we were gazing at "two women running on the beach"....a picture in which both of the figures appear to have had wardrobe malfunctions and have exposed left boobies. 



This led to a conversation about the "nipplegate" affair (of which I was previously unaware), wherein Justin Timberlake (or so I'm told) tore open Janet Jacksons top and revealed that she was wearing what Nicole described as a pasty.  The conversation then went something along these lines:

Nicole: "and she was wearing a pasty"

Howie: "I'm sorry, a what?"

Nicole: "a pasty! not to be confused with a pastie that you eat!"

Howie: "I don't know what that is......"

Nicole, looking frustrated: "a mpfmpfmpf"

Howie: "A what? I can't hear you"

Nicole, looking a little distraught: "A boobie tassle!"

Howie, thinking this was a metaphor for something else, "A what?!?"

Holly to the side gesticulating to indicate tassles swinging around in circles off a breast,

Nicole, under extreme duress and sounding like a child who is really embarrassed: "a BOOBY TASSLE!"

Howie: laughing like an idiot at the humour of it all.....

I then proceeded to remember the conversation repeatedly at approximately 5 min intervals and loose myself to chuckling like a 13yo :)

At any rate, afterwards we had a cuppa in the Domain and then Holly had to leave, so Nicole and I went for a wander around Mrs MacQuarries Chair and into the Botanic Gardens.

Nic and I in the Gardens.

Thursday then saw me catch up with my friend Helen for the first time in a few months, which was awesome and we went to a little chocolate vendor in Darlinghurst called Boon which was fantastic....I could really have eaten their chocolates all afternoon :)  Afterwards I felt the need to show Helen the inside of Hotel Hollywood in Surry Hills......a hotel that hasn't been renovated at all in the last 40 years, so has something of a seedy authentic charm that works wonders on me!

Well, I then had a quiet afternoon/evening in, and just as I was about to go to bed, a friend posted some pictures on facebook of St Mary's Cathedral with beautiful lights shone onto the front of it, so I dressed myself and went for a walk down to see it for myself, and it was amazing.  They had set up what looked to be a cinema projector, which was shining a christmas animation onto the front face of the cathedral, it looked outstanding and reminded me why Christmas is such a wonderful time of year, especially for kids who haven't seen things like that before.  Here are a couple of videos of it....I feel that it should be shared, even though the videos from my phone really don't do it justice!

And finally, today saw me go into the ship to be promoted, with effect from 16 Jan 2012.  I could have had it done in absence (meaning that I didn't need to be there), but I have so much respect for the CO on the ship (Commander Ainsley Morthorpe), that I really wanted to have him promote me....such a childish thing, and yet it makes me happy, so I'm not going to belittle or justify it :)

I then caught up with my friend Sorro, before foregetting to collect my uniforms that were in with the tailor at the clothing store, and coming home, where I've achieved very little apart from attempting (and so far, not succeeding) to mend a rift between my mother and brother......ahh family....I love you, but you cause me so much stress!  Then again, I probably wouldn't want the individuals in my family any other way :)

Well friends that's about the last of my news for the moment.  Thanks for reading and I hope that the lead into Christmas is treating every one of you well.  On the off chance that I don't get around to posting again before Christmas, I hope that everyone has a great festive season, and an amazing 2012 :)

Cheers,

Howie..

Tuesday 06th December 2011 - Day 295

Hi Friends,

"What's been going on?" I hear you ask.  Well, a lot and not much.  The last month or so has consisted of me successfully completing my promotion course, finishing up work in HMAS Success and (as of Friday past) starting 6 weeks of leave leading into my posting in January.

I have felt almost no cravings for nicotine since I last posted on this blog, but I have finished one more of the tasks on my list (which is looking more and more like I won't finish it).  I have done a painting of Sydney Harbour.  I copied a photograph that I took, and did it as a finger painting (to justify my complete inability to make anything look truly beautiful in art).

So....here's the original picture and the painting:

Original picture of Sydney Harbour coming around to Mrs MacQuarry's Chair from Woolloomooloo

Finger Painting of Harbour in picture above

So there you have it :)  If nothing else, I got my artistic finger (right hand, finger beside thumb) out and finger-painted this.

I have also covered the volunteer work item.  I have started volunteering for St Vincent De Paul (how funny given that I'm the least Christian man alive), for a special work that they have called the Redfern Task Force.  Volunteers for this group go into the homes of people who have called the office asking for assistance, and we take them food or power vouchers (or occasionally phone bill vouchers....but these are the proverbial hens teeth), to help them get by.

I have volunteered for 2 nights each month, and it only takes a couple of hours each time, so it's not really much time out of my life.

I have also completed the induction training for an organisation called Compeer, who also work under the auspices of St Vincent De Paul as a special work.  It is a friendship program for people with, or recovering from, mental illness who don't have much social interaction.  At this stage, I'm waiting for the St Vinnies to get my police check back and then to (hopefully) match me with a "friend".  This will only be an hour a week with a promise of a minimum of a year, and once again isn't really that much time out of my life to spare, and hopefully make someone else's life better.

Finally, I've found an organisation that helps the elderly (which is the original volunteer work that I wanted to do), so I'm filling in paperwork to send back to the Benevolent Society, so that hopefully I'll be able to be a part of their program, helping the elderly stay in their own homes longer by helping with chores and doing social visits.

Well, on a complete change of subject, I have managed to catch up with an old school friend, Adele, for a chat on facebook tonight, which has been awesome.  It's always great to catch up with people you haven't heard from in a while, and it's been about 6 years since I last spoke to her.  Double win is that through her facebook page, I noticed another old schoolfriend of ours who I'd fallen out of touch with, so fingers crossed I can re-ignite that friendship also.

On the no drinking front, I am still finding myself conflicted as to whether or not I want to start drinking again once my year is over.  I'm really looking forward to a couple of glasses of wine or a few beers, but then again, I am really happy with my life while I'm not drinking........what to do...what to do?

Ok, I think I've prattled on enough for one evening.  I hope this finds you all well, and thanks for reading my testament to exhibitionism :)

Take care Friends,

Howie..

Saturday 15th October 2011 - Day 243

G'day Friends,

Well, life is going well in the world of quit, and I think I can safely say that I'm well and truly of my addiction to nicotine.

It just occurred to me that I haven't posted any of the pictures of what I've been up to this month....so here goes.

The month started out with Kim and Zoe's wedding at Garden Island on 01Oct, which was amazing.  It was such a beautiful spot to get married overlooking Sydney Harbour and Fort Denison.

Kim and Zoe - Seconds after being pronounced Husband and Wife.

Then, the following day I decided to go for a walk around the city, which started in Hyde Park, then via the Domain, then Farm Cove, they Opera House, and then across the Harbour Bridge to visit my friend Sarah P in North Sydney.



Looking up through the trees in the Domain.

Walking away from Woolloomooloo Bay towards Mrs McQuarrie's Point.

They Harbour Bridge and Opera House, viewed from the opposite side of Farm Cove.

Looking up as I crossed the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The Following day Casey and I went for a walk to Newtown to visit KC and her boyfriend for lunch, which was a great walk, and the weather turned on for us, so it was a really pleasant day.

After another wondrous week at work, I flew up to Toogoom in Queensland to visit Mum for the weekend.  I couldn't believe how much work Mum had done to the yard which was looking amazing compared to the plain grassed yard that it was the last time I visited.

Mum and I in the back yard.

Ego and I on Saturday Morning.

Sunset over the lake, viewed from the back yard.

Toogoom Beach at 0730 Sunday Morning....what a great lead in to breakfast.

Sarah was kind enough to pick me up from the airport on Sunday afternoon, and so we went for a walk to Circular Quay and had ice cream that afternoon.

Sarah and the Ice Cream in Circular Quay.

Howie The Thinker, at the feet of Shakespeare.

During the week I had the dubious pleasure of being duty on the ship on Monday night, which ended up having a little surprise of fireworks at about 8pm.

Fireworks - I bet you'd never have worked that one out.

More Fireworks - Lucky I was here to tell you!

Well, then the week progressed quietly and we had an early finish for work on Friday, so I was home by 1pm, and filled my Friday evening with napping, the Internet and re sealing my bath tub with silicone sealant......Unbelievable isn't it.....How do I keep up with such a high tempo life on the weekends!

Today I decided to go for a random wander around town and ended up at Paddy's Markets in Haymarket, which was a solid reminder of why I don't go there very often......because it is always vastly overcrowded.  Afterwards I finally, after nearly a decade of saying that I would, went into the Chinese Gardens of Friendship, which were stunningly beautiful, after which I came home via a stroll through the city.  Here's a couple of pictures I took in the gardens:

All in all I'm quite pleased with my weekend so far.  Tomorrow should be a good day of catching up with friends and celebrating my friend Bobby's birthday.

Well, I think I've taken up enough of your time.  Thanks for reading Friends.  I hope you're all having a great weekend :)

Take Care,

Howie..

Thursday 13th October 2011 - Day 241

Hi Friends,

Long time no write.  I guess I don't really have too much in the way of excuses, as I"ve been pretty relaxed lately.

Well, the last month has been eventful, but in a nice easygoing way.  I've spent a weekend in Qld with Mum last weekend, which apart from having left my wallet on the plane at the Sunshine Coast airport was fantastic.  I barely left Mum's house, apart from to go for a walk around the lake on Saturay, and a quick walk down the beach on Sunday, before flying home around lunch time.

Apart from that, the world has been fairly quiet.  I've celebrated my friend Lishy's birthday, in addition to bearing witness t,o and helping my friends Kim and Zoe celebrate their wedding.  I've walked to North Sydney to have lunch with Sarah, and walked to Newtown with Casey, to catch up with KC and her gentleman friend Jules for lunch.  The visit to Newtown paid double dividends as I randomly caught up with my friends Celia and Jo, both of whom I'd effectively lost contact with, so now we're planning a dinner catch up which should be fun.

Well, on the quitting front, I've quite gladly maintained my sweet quitness of both cigarettes and alcohol.  I have to admit though, I'm very much looking forward to February 15 next year so that I can enjoy a few glasses of wine with my friends and Family.  It was such a shame to see Kim and Zoe marry and not be able to share in the toast of their wedding.....although I did hold the glass of champagne and raise it too my lips, so that I looked the part........

Unfortunately I also received a little bit of bad news, in finding out that my mother has emphysema.  I guess this is life reminding me that it's a good thing that I've quit smoking, but it's hard to look at the positives in my world when the woman who brought me into is suffering the negative repercussions of not having quit smoking.  Giving hope is the information I've been reading on google about the promising research that has been done with human multipotent lung stem cells that were injected into mice and appeared to grow new cells and tissue.  This is Howie crossing his fingers that this translates into something usable in human lung disease sufferes... X.

A lot of people have asked me if I'm feeling better for quitting both drinking and smoking, and the honest answer is.........not noticably.  I think that I am healthier (as is demonstrated by the extra kilograms I have put on since quitting smoking/drinking), but because it has become the norm for me, I just feel normal.  I am, however, thankful that I haven't had a hangover in exactly 8 months.....especially as the last hangover that I did have on the 13th February, made me feel like I wanted to crawl into a cold dark hole for a year!  I'm also glad that I went to the doctor for a post-quitting checkup and he tells me that everything appears normal with my respiratory system, so cheers to that.

Ok Friends, thanks for reading and I hope that this post finds you all well and happy.  Enjoy your time with your Families and support them in a healthy lifestyle :)

Howie..

Tuesday 20th September 2011 - Day 218 - Theatre and such

Hello Friends,

Well, I thought it time to make another quick post as I'm being pretty slack with it since we returned home to Australia.

Life goes on well here.  I received an offer of promotion at work for April next year, which (after a long time of telling people that I probably wouldn't accept a promotion) I have accepted.  My main logic being that I'm posting ashore next year (which involves a rather large pay cut in losing seagoing allowance), so I might as well lessen the hurt by taking the promotion and pay rise.

We'll see if this was a wise choice next year.  All in all, I guess I should try to move forward professionally, and this has probably given the navy a bit more of my time as I was thinking about moving on to another line of work before accepting this offer.

Well, moving along, there hasn't been a great deal to tell except that Casey and I went to see Hairspray the musical last Tuesday, which was actually really good.  I didn't really have any desire to see it, but Casey had mentioned that she wanted to see it, then I received an email about discount tickets at work, and it seemed fated that we should see it.  In closing, I can strongly recommend seeing it to anyone who likes live theatre.

I also received an email for discounted tickets to La Boheme playing in the Opera Room at the Opera House.  So I called up on Friday (about a week and a half ago) to book a ticket, only to find out that tickets were for a performance of the Thursday night previous............unfortunate timing on my behalf, it would seem.

Well, it has been over 7 months since I had a drink or cigarette now......218 days in fact.  This means that I haven't smoked 4360 cigarettes, haven't spent $2964.8 on cigarettes (at $17/packet), and (with the exception of the flu that I picked up for a few days, haven't coughted up a lung every day for the past 7 months.

At a guess, I've probably also saved myself a few thousand dollars that I would have spent on booze and on random crap that I'd buy while drunk........well, less saved, and more spent on other things :)

Plans for the near future??...... Well, I have my brother in Sydney this week, and coming to stay with me for a couple of nights later in the week, then have a friends wedding next weekend, then heading up to Qld to visit Mum the weekend after, and then it's time to start saving for Christmas!

Ok Friends, I think I've tapped away enough to bore you now, so I hope this post finds you all well, and to those of you still smoking, I say, try to give up for your health and your family (I won't pretend it was easy, but it's definitely worth it).

Take care Friends,

Howie..

Monday 5th September 2011 - Day 203 - A Work Trip to Canberra followed by List Item 44..... a Weekend in Melbourne, and the HMAS Success Ships Ball

Hello Friends,

Well, It's Monday, and the past couple of weeks have seen me do a work trip to Canberra, spend a weekend in Melbourne with Nicole, Casey and Jean, and then go to our Ship's Ball last Friday and finally go (briefly) to Karen's Birthday on Saturday.

The week in Canberra (the week before last), saw us drive down on Sunday, spend the week visiting various comms related agencies, and then drive home on Thursday.  All in all not a bad way to spend 4 working days....certainly beats working for a living.

Sass, Buddy and I on the road to Canberra.

After a non-eventful day at work the following Friday, we boarded our plane and headed down to Melbourne.

We booked ourselves into a 2br apartment in Docklands, and based ourselves out of it for the weekend.  We arrived at the apartment at about 11pm on Friday night, and after dropping off our things, we (the others) decided to go in search of booze, which saw us at a bar not too far from our apartment, which initially seemed a bit off, but we soon discovered was filled with some of the drunkest (and worst dancing) people in the world.

We spent a couple of hours there, until the bar closed in fact, entertaining ourselves by watching the drunken antics of the local fauna.  We then discovered that there was a 24hr bottle ship in the city, to which we ventured before heading home for an hour or so of chatting before retiring for the night.

Saturday morning was spent getting ready, then heading to Fitzroy for a bit of breakfast (lunch), before wandering the streets and looking at the shops. We then went to the Melbourne Museum and had a look at the Tutenkamen exhibition which was on.  I'd like to say that it was well worth the entry into the exhibit, as the artifacts that they had on display were so fascinating that I think (provided the hundreds of people that were also fascinated, weren't there), that I could have spent days looking at them.

Nicole, Jean and Casey as we were about to enter the Tutenkamen exhibition.

 

Saturday night saw us catching up with some friends in a bar in Melbourne city, but I found myself not in the mood and was home and in bed by about midnight.

Having expected to be woken up by the others buzzing the door to get in, I was a little bit surprised when I woke up at 5am and they weren't home.  Then again at 6:30.

Thankfully the kids made it home an hour or so later, and were all looking worse for wear after a big night out.

We then went for a trip to South Yarra, where Chapel St let me down in my hunt for some great clothes.....or perhaps I just wasn't in good hunting form.  On the up side, my credit card didn't take the beating I was expecting it to, and that's always a great thing.

Well, last week went the way of most working weeks, but ending with our Ship's Ball on Friday night.  After having a few dramas with friends cancelling, I finally found a home for two of the tickets I'd bought with one of the boys from work and his girlfriend, and the night was outstanding.  Casey came along, and we had a blast.  It sometimes surprises me how much fun I can have even though I'm not drinking.

Casey and I at the ball.

I won't pretend that I won't enjoy drinking again come February 15 2012, but It's still been a good experience to live my life without booze for a while.

Well, Saturday was my friend Karen turn 30, and so I took myself to Paddington Bowls Club to help her celebrate, but for reasons various, only lasted about an hour and a half before I had to leave, but it was still great to be there for the beginning of her birthday festivities......I can safely say there was never any chance of me advertising my lack of physical co-ordination by playing bowls with a large group of strangers haha.

Karen and her birthday cake

It's been nearly 7 months now since I've had a drink or cigarette, and I'm feeling that I could probably go back to drinking now and not feel the need to smoke, but as I've said to quite a number of people, I've said that I'd take a year off drinking, so I'll stick to that.........I am looking forward to a vino or two though ;)

Before I sign off for the night, I'll make a list of the negatives and positives of both not smoking, and not drinking.

Quitting smoking:

Positives                                                                 Negatives

1) Obviously the health aspects (not damaging        1) Withdrawals in the first few weeks.
my body in all the ways that we're all aware of.

2) Money saved - at $17 or more/packet, I've          2) Less breaks from work - Smoking was a reason
kept thousands of dollars in my pocket (or at least        to have a break from work, and I find that I don't
I've spent it on more enjoyable things).                         tend to take breaks so much anymore.

3) No smokers cough - my smokers cough was the    3) Loss of the social side of smoking - there are
main reason that I wanted to give up smoking, well       a large number of people that I rarely speak to
that, and to set a good example for my Mother.              anymore as I don't see them in the smoking areas.

4) Eyes are less bloodshot.

5) Hands no longer shake - my hands used to shake
a lot normally, and now barely shake at all.

6) I don't stink of cigarette anymore (not that I realised
how bad it smelt before......but I certainly do now!).

7) I understand the virtue of the old addage "if at first
you don't succeed, try, try again" now.

Quitting Drinking:  Positives                                             Negatives

1) So much money saved/spent on better things.                1) I miss the process and feeling of drinking

2) No Hangovers.                                                               2) I find myself more awkward in some social
                                                                                           situations than I would be if I had a few
                                                                                           drinks.

3) I have so much more spare time without drinking

4) I am doing a lot more with my weekends

5) I am making it to everything that I say I'm going to
go to (ie: no bailing because I'm hungover)

Ok, I think that's enough of a list for the moment, clearly the positives are far outweighing the negatives, and that is about the bulk of my news for the moment friends.  I hope that life is treating you all well, and that you're enjoying the world.

Take care of yourselves (and your friends and family for that matter) and enjoy your week.

Howie..

Tuesday 23rd August 2011 - Day 190 - Canberra

Good Day Good Fellows,

Well, again it's been quite a while since I blogged and I can't really give any valid reason for this except that I'm the king of being sidetracked.

I've managed to fill in a lot of my time lately doing various things.

After buying the chair/ottoman off Ebay that I wrote about last time, I then went a little bit crazy with Ebay and bought another 4 armchairs, one of which I have re-upholstered (two more to go).  I've also bought a ridiculous amount of photo frames, with the intention of covering the small wall under my stairs eclectically with framed pictures of my family and friends.

Well, I've managed to knock another of the items off my list over, in that Nicole, Renee, Matt and I went ice skating at the rink set up in the forecourt of St Mary's Cathedral for Winter Festival.  It was $30 for a bit under an hour, but was very much worth the cash.

I have also (as mentioned earlier) spent a great deal of time pulling apart, stripping and then recovering one of a pair of armchairs that I bought on Ebay.  The chairs were originally covered in leather (or vinyl, but I think it was leather), and I've re-covered one with a multi-shaded maroon/purple striped material, and I plan to re-cover the other in a soft light khaki coloured material.  The process was surprisingly easy, and it only took me a cumulative 10hrs (approximately) to do the first chair.  I've done a bit of a dodgy job on it, but it has stood me in a better place for doing the second chair.

My plan is eventually to finish the second chair, and that these two chairs should be my study in re-upholstering before I get to work re-covering a beautiful 1940's chair that I've bought to repair/recover (for $19).......the last chair that I've bought (also on Ebay) was for $9.90 and is an old red velvet, wing backed chair, that I'll have a look at when I collect it (hopefully this weekend), and recover eventually, if necessary.

I have completely run out of room in my living room, so I think the first armchair that I recovered will have to come apart again and be moved upstairs into my little library space to make room for the red velvet chair when it comes.

Well, I am currently in Canberra on the base HMAS Harman doing a familiarisation tour with my department, of the various agencies with whom we liaise for various work related things.  It's a very informative tour if you've never done it before, but this is the 3rd time that I've done this particular visit, so it's really just a vacation from work for me....so I'm definitely not complaining.

Well, that's about the best that I can tell you all for the moment.  Life is good with me and I have managed to stay smoke and drink free as planned.  I'm a bit happy that my brother and his sons will be staying with me, albeit in cramped style in my apartment, in about a month, which means I'll get to see them and they'll get to see my home.

Ok Friends, I hope you're all well, and that life is good for you all.

Thanks for reading.

Howie..

Wednesday 20th July 2011 - Day 156 - Self Portrait

Hello Friends,

I know it's been ages since I blogged, and my apologies for that.  There has been much going on in my world, and I've recently become addicted to ebay, so you'll find me on any given non-work day staring at ebay like a dog stares at a food bowl at dinner time.

Well, life has been pretty good lately.  There was a little bit of turbulence at work for me a week ago, so I had a little hissy fit and took a week and a half off just so that I didn't have to be there, but I've accepted what I need to inside of me and I'm not bothered about having to go back to work.  I think that even those people that are causing problems for me at work (of which I must be one....you should always accept some responsibility for the situations you find yourself in), are only a passing part of my life, so it's not worth getting too stressed out about the issues.  I'm reminded again of the old adage "This Too Shall Pass".

Well, in my week (so far) off work, I have discovered the joys if ebay for buying second hand things for a fraction of the cost that you'd pay for them new.  I have been looking for the perfect reading chair off and on for a couple of years now, and everything I liked was in the $700-$1500 range.  After my awesome friend Lishy suggested I go to the second hand furniture shops and see if I could find something that I liked and could get cleaned/re-upholstered, it occurred to me that ebay was much the same thing, and I found a great reading chair and ottoman for the budget price of $50.  Never having been one to buy a whole lot of second hand furniture, I wasn't aware that you can actually get good quality item!  I've since bought a second hand washer/dryer to free up some space in my kitchen (where resides my laundry cupboard....which can now be cut in half :) )

I'm also looking at other chairs that I might buy just to have some occasional chairs around the apartment.  Thankfully the absurd amount of chairs that I was bidding on in the first few days of my ebay addiction were all outbid, so I don't have a home full of chairs and no room for movement! :)

At any rate, I've also caught up with some friends: Chris and Claws at their house last weekend, Holly for her going away drinks the weekend prior, Sarah for breakfast and a stroll yesterday, Garth at C&C's last weekend (who then helped me pick up new chair).

Oh! that reminds me:  I bought the washer/dryer as discussed from a woman called Michelle in the inner western suburbs, and unfortunately my friend who's care I was going to use to collect the machine, had to leave before I could collect it.  The short version of this story is that the woman (Michelle) who sold me the machine, then collected me from the city in her car, drove me to her house to pick the item up, then dropped me off with the machine to my building!  I didn't know that strangers in Sydney could be that kind and helpful.  Conversation indicated that she was born and raised here as well, so there is something positive to be said of Sydney city natives.

So, now I have my sweet Mumsy on her was down from Queensland to collect my old washer and dryer, which is great as it's a good break for her to come visit and she hasn't been here for a while.  It will be nice to have here visit for a couple of days.  She doesn't like driving in the city though, so I'm going to take a train to Hornsby when she get's there and drive the car in for her.  Bless her cotton socks!

It occurred to me this morning that I haven't really attacked much of my sobriety list since I got home to Australia, so this morning I flexed my (somewhat atrophied) artistic muscle, and attempted a self portrait.  The portrait was done while sitting on my sofa opposite a mirror, and it is a clear indication that I need much more practice before I could be considered an artist.

I think I've managed to make myself look like a bit of a zombie in it, but all things considered I did a pretty good job for Me!

Ok Friends, I hope this post finds you all well and happy and that life is treating you well.  Until next time, take care, and be kind to people :)

Howie..

Thursday 7th July 2010 - Day 143 - Mondays that are Sundays, Duty and Yoga

G'day Friends,

Well, life is good today.  I've had a pretty good week, which started with a day at HMAS Watson which should have been a day of pretending that we were working on the bridge of a ship at sea, but as there were some room booking issues, we ended up spending the day sitting in the sun and chatting for the most part.  What an outstanding way to start the working week, even more so as we were right on the water overlooking Sydney harbour at Watsons Bay.  Here are some pictures that I took while out there.

I call this picture....trees on harbour.

I call this one.... trees on harbour with cloud.

This one is called.....Grassky.

Ok, I'm struggling with what to write to justify these pictures. 

Tuesday wasn't quite so relaxed and Wednesday consisted of being duty on my ship which meant I lost half of my working day to standing on the gangway, and then was up at unwholesome o'clock this morning to stand on the gangway again.  On the up side, being duty gave me occasion to take that following two pictures:

HMAS Newcastle's Australian National Flag with the Opera House, Harbour Bridge and Sunset in the background. 

I took this photo at about 6am this morning, there was so much colour considering it was twilight in an industrial wasteland of a wharf. 

And tomorrow I have the dubious pleasure of heading out to HMAS Watson to (hopefully) do what we were meant to do on Monday.  Thankfully that will lead us into the weekend, and it should only be a half working day (being Friday).  I'm quite looking forward to this weekend.  I don't think I have any plans for tomorrow night, which will be great, I should be able to have a night in my PJ's watching a few movies.  Saturday is Holly's going away drinks (LLB's for me), and then Sunday I should be catching up with my cousin Divinia, who I haven't seen in about 7 years.

I am still managing to keep away from smoking and drinking, although I had the most overwhelming desire for a beer at about 5pm yesterday afternoon.  I can't justify what the reason was, but I certainly did want to have a beer.

Well, that's my news for the moment friends.  I hope you're all have a great week.  Until next time, take care.

Howie..