Dinner date.

Just had our 6 month anniversary dinner (love you babe!) at Viva, which is this nice little Italian place in Applecross.

We got there pretty early (6:15pm?), so the place was quite quiet. Quite nice and friendly sort of ambiance, lots of yellow lighting... and surprisingly comfortable chairs! Actually, the chairs sort of remind me of the old cane garden chairs. A little nostalgic... and creaky! Food is pretty good, and the portions are big. Then again, you get what you pay for, and things are a little on the pricier side after all.

Food was simple, hearty fare. Char ordered roast goat, which came on a very savory rissoto. The goat itself was quite nice, although I'd imagine you'd get a little blah after eating the rissoto after a while. It's very heavy! I had a steak. Medium rare. No complaints there! I feel fat now though.

And they have a very interesting sounding salmon on the menu. I'll definitely try that next time I'm there.

(Sorry to the foodies out there. No pictures! Haha. Maybe next time!)

Finished dinner right around the time it was starting to get busy (and a little noisy too!), and ended up taking a little drive through Freo before finding a nice quiet spot along South Beach to just sit and talk and listen to the sound of the sea meeting the shore.

I had a great evening.

Love you Char!

*pokes*

G/W Elves will smash your face.

I'm supposed to be writing more story today (editing! takes! forever!), but my mind wandered. It's not pretty or innovative or even remotely elegant, but I did put together the following Magic deck.

Yes Joe/Daryl/Ming Yang, I know it's gay.
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The Deck (Green/White Elves):

Creatures
4 x Llanowar Elves
4 x Wren's Run Vanquisher
4 x Imperious Perfect
4 x Elvish Champion
4 x Wilt-Leaf Cavalier
4 x Wilt-Leaf Liege
4 x Chameleon Colossus
2 x Boreal Druid

Other spells
4 x Oblivion Ring
2 x Loxodon Warhammer
2 x Overrun

Lands
4 x Brushland
4 x Wooded Bastion
14 x Forest
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Yes, I know there's no Garruk Wildspeaker or instant speed removal in the deck. I could have gone Priest of Titania, but keeping the deck standard legal was too appealing a notion to give up. Well, that and I don't own any Garruks.

Ideal play for me will be something along the lines of:

Turn 1: Forest, cast Llanowar Elves
Turn 2: Forest, cast Imperious Perfect or Elvish Champion
Turn 3: Forest, cast second Perfect, Champion, or Wilt-Leaf Liege. Attack for 6.
Turn 4: Forest, cast Chameleon Colossus. Attack for 9.
Turn 5: Forest, cast Overrun. Attack for 30. GG. :p

Okay. Distraction over! Back to work!

And then, and then, and...

Went out for a spot of shooting yesterday. God, I wish it was summer. Open blue skies are so welcoming versus this curtain of perpetual grey. I guess my shooting skills have really anthropied since the last time I seriously picked up a camera for any extended period of time(circa 2002).

Went for a 2 hour long blood test too. Kind of ridiculous, but it can't really be helped. The doc wants to check for diabetes, which means drinking a cup of sugar water and being poked every 30 mins to check glucouse absorbtion over time.

Wrote out a timeline for the story though. And I got some reading done.

Speaking of writing, I slogged through the last bits of chapter four of my 'novel' (to borrow Cheryl's term), but got pretty smooth at chapters five and six. I think the main reason why chapter four was such hard going is because it's a set up for subsequent character arcs. It's necessary, but not all that exciting to write about.

Plus I do write short chapters, so it's not really all THAT much words.

I think Wally's getting a bit antagonistic though. I know he's just hurting, but I really should try and rein him in a bit.

Job/Money/Sian!

For what it's worth, getting the paperwork ready for a job is as much of a pain as is getting a job proper. I've spent around $120 getting all the requisite clearances and identity checks and what have you in order to start my new job. Apparently it's claimable on tax. Well, at least I hope so.

Tax this year is going to be a headache, I've had 4 seperate jobs this financial year!

And I really need to sort out superannuation stuff.

I'm still pondering when I should tell my current boss that I've got a new job. It's a little more complicated when you're working for a family friend. I'll give him a month's notice, I guess. (Meaning I'll tell him in a fortnight)

Personal recommendation: do not work for family friends if you can at all avoid it. I've tried asking for more work hours (denied), but am expected to stay back and finish work should my workload not get done. It's not fun when you're paid by the hour, but don't get paid for anything beyond the "official" work hours.

Random things.

Haven't shot anything yet. The on again/off again rain is really irritating, plus the cloud cover means pretty bad lighting. I have been rummaging through my stuff, and have taken pictures of a whole bunch of items which I'm now attempting to flog off on Ebay and make some cash!

Written some story, here's a list of characters populating my little world. Some have made an appearance, some haven't. The ones I've already written about are in bold.

________________________________________________________________

Wally - He owns and runs a comic cum hobby store. Is obsessed about comics and Magic: The Gathering. He's a little emo.

Amanda - Wally's high flying lawyer ex-girlfriend who's just broken up with him. She's very demanding and aggressive.

Dick - Works at the comic store. He's overbearing, pushy, and has an encyclopedic knowledge of comics which he likes to flaunt. He's also quite desperate.

JD - Also works at the store. He's intelligent, sarcastic, and gets the job done with minimum fuss. He's also quite intuitive when it comes to people.

Liz - Wally's best friend. She used to be very into comics and stuff, but gave up 'trivial pursuits' for a career (she regrets the decision). Smart and speaks her mind a lot. Secretly loves Wally, but knows that they'll never work out.

Barry - A guitarist from the store next door. Loud, arrogant, and dislikes 'nerd culture'. Bully who goes out of his way to aggravate people. Barry seems driven by a need to 'one-up' everyone else. Wally and him hate each other.

Abby - An indie musician. She's soft spoken and from out of town.

Melisa - An ex-girlfriend of Wally's.

EDIT: Abby is now named 'Marie', she's an indie/folk musician who's in art school. She's currently working with Barry to produce an album. She's got an amazing voice.

Oh YES!

My nerves are shot to bloody blazes. 120 minutes of football and a nerve-wracking penalty shoot out. Oh God. It's just hard to recover. Finally at long last, we've won it again. I can't sleep. It's a combination of stress and excitement.

Oh YES!

Bill Shankly once said that football isn't a matter of life and death, it's much more important than that. And oh God, on nights like this I absolutely agree. I'm absolutely overwhelmed. It's taken nine long years to get to this night once again. Nine years of near-misses and heartaches. Only football fans would understand.

I'm trying really hard not to yell and scream here. Oh God, YES!

Two moments really stand out, and they've got nothing to do with football.

First, after Ronaldo missed the penalty, Gary Neville walked out into the rain - suit and all - and picked him up off the ground, and brought him to where the rest of the team was. That's leadership. Even if you're not on the pitch, you're leading your team from the bench. That's something I respect.

Second, when Man Utd won, Paul Scholes didn't join in the celebrations, but instead walked over to John Terry - Chelsea captain - to console him. That's sportsmanship. Think about it. Here's a guy who missed the last finals, finally played in one and won it, and the first thing he does is to console the opposing team. That, I respect.

Say what you want about great goals, young players and championship moments. For me, it was the old guard who stepped up and were counted. Did the things that truly mattered.

That's what's this game is about. Moments like those. These are the things that stick with you. The stepping up. The kind of examples that only legends can set. Somewhere, some kid is going to see those images and think to himself "that's the kind of man I want to be", and it's going to stick with him his whole life. And I'm one of those kids.

Good job well done, lads. And full lauds to Chelsea for giving their 110%. It could really have swung either way.

I love this game!

Trying not to bounce.

Bought my camera yesterday, and as you can tell, I'm finding it hard to contain my excitement. No, I'm not quite bouncing off the walls and hanging from the rafters yet, so calm yourselves (although I wouldn't put it past me after I've had a few drinks!).

(Who am I kidding? I bought a fucking dSLR! WHOO HOOO!!! THAT'S FUCKING SWEET!!!!)

I think I've gotten a pretty sweet deal with the camera. Paid $1300 for it, plus accessories. Breakdown's like this:

Nikon D60 twin lens kit: $1399.99
Tripod : $59.99
4GB Memory card : $79.99
Flash : $249.99

Total price : $1789.96
Price paid : $1300.00

Saved : $489.96

I'm pretty pleased with myself; so if you come across a better deal, don't tell me about it! Ignorance is bliss, and my pocket DOES hurt after all.

Been fiddling around with the camera all night, and I hope to get a few shots in later today (hopefully I'll have the time!). First things first, I need a camera bag! I think a five million dollar home will suit my new toy rather nicely eh? Okay, so I do have expensive tastes with a rapidly emptying pocket. But it is a rather nice home, don't you agree?

(And no, Amelia, I am NOT going to name the camera anything!)

EDIT: I'm gonna grab the bag tomorrow before shooting. Walking around taking photographs without a bag just feels weird. Plus I don't want to walk back with the the camera around my neck when I'm done. There's the danger of it getting damaged. First shoot's tomorrow late arvo then. Rar.