I may have eaten a bug...

True. I may have...

I had lunch at wagamama noodle bar (the yummiest noodle bar in the world - just ask Bubz and Z!) Unfortunately, at the end I was eating the salad and down the bottom as I was finishing was a rather large winged insect struggling in the (yummy) dressing and sauce from the rice dish.

Now, normally I'm not phased by this kind of thing, but this was the END of my meal, so no opportunity to check the rest of the food. It occurred to me if there was one, there may have been another, or a couple of others, or...

Turns out that they only use organic salad ingredients (a good thing - both for me and the insect). Therefore, sometimes things just don't die like good chemicals would kill them. Instead, they get eaten.

Still, I didn't pay for the meal so all around it wasn't too bad.

Now, having said all of this, I would still heartily recommend them. I have eaten there (well, at the ones in London anyway) MANY times and always loved it. They still get my vote.

Happy New Year from the Mansion

Happy New Year all!

Spent New Years Eve with friends at 'The Mansion'. Ate great BBQ and swam all night (what did you expect - it was 42 degrees even at 7pm!!!!) Those of us who stuck around to see the new year in jumped in the pool to celebrate the event, then went and did it again a few minutes later just for good measure. I also have a new nickname. That's right. It turns out we are using the model name of our sunglasses as nicknames, so from now on I'm Fury. Aaron is Razor, Luke is Rage, and we decided that Brad is Beige (Rage sunglasses from Bali, so an unfortunate joining of the two makes him Beige...). Sounds like we are all super heroes! Except for Brad... he just sounds like a girl.

Anyway, enough rambling. I'm back at work, so life is back to normal now. Hopefully my mind will kick back into gear and I'll be a little more profound and thoughtful here again.

I have a number of New Years resolutions that I will share here. That should help keep me accountable.

1. To keep blogging. At least 4 times a week unless I REALLY don't have anything to say...

2. So, I currently weigh in at around Gold FM. This needs to change. Not healthy. Therefore I need to get to a different radio station weight... SBS FM would be nice, or Light FM would be better still (quite an appropriate name too!) So it's exercise at least 4 times a week with a healthier diet as well. *** I know, I know, it's a cliche and everyone does it at the new year just to slip 2 weeks later. That's why I'm sticking it in my Blog to help make it a little more public. And by using FM radio stations at least it's a little different and novel for a day or two!!!***

3. Get 1 or 2 new I.T. certifications. (In my job, it always pays to get one more). Going for CISSP first, and then maybe CNA or ITIL Foundations.

4. Spend more time doing fun things with my lovely beautiful wife!

There. That will do for now. Let's see how the years pans out!

God bless all.

Christmas, decking, gardening and the like...

Well, it's been a pretty good Christmas so far. Went to Bairnsdale to spend Christmas with the inlaws on their farm. Great time up there. Saw my Uncle and Auntie in Lakes Entrance while we were up there, and my cousin who has spent the last 15 years in Geneva and Bangkok working for the UNHCR.

Then back to Melbourne in our legendary brown car (yep, it made the trip just fine thanks everyone!) Mum and Dad came over from Adelaide and we spent a whole day cleaning the deck with a high-pressure hose and gardening. (I know, I know, not exactly fun. But I own a home now, so it's a necessary evil).

Today I went to day 4 of the Boxing Day cricket test against South Africa at the newly finished MCG - back up over the 100,000 capacity, it is truly an amazing stadium. Treated myself in the 33 degree heat to a Mattie Hayden century, and quick fire 72 from Symonds which included 6 sixes (an MCG record) and then South Africa lost 6 wickets in the final session. Couldn't have been better if I'd written the script!

Nothing profound or interesting to write at this point. I think I switched my brain off this week, so don't expect much before next week of any note!

God bless you all.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas all, and have a great holiday period. I'm off for a few days, although I'll post again soon. The first few weeks f this have been a lot of fun, so thanks for reading.

God bless,
Nath.

oh Darcy!

Well, Luke Darcy has gone and ruptured his Anterior Cruciate Ligament in training... So this year he won't even make it as far as round six... Sad sad day for all good Western Bulldogs supporters. Without him on the forward line and sharing the ruck it could be a bad sign.

A goat and a shoe.

I'm having one of those mornings. You know the ones where you think about just how good you have it really, and how very unbalanced the world really is? Sharon and I sponsor a child from Uganda through Compassion Australia (check them out at www.compassion.com.au - you can sponsor a child right off the page. Oh, and if you do, leave a comment so I know you did!). Compassion does all their sponsorship by partnering with local churches in the community. I think their method is excellent, so I love to support them.

We got a letter from our child last week, and she was just so greatful that we support her. She now has a goat and a shoe (we assume she means shoes - if not then we need to up our sponsorship money...) It sort of hurts. I mean, we don't even MISS the money we send. I honestly don't even notice it. Not one little bit. Yet she now has a goat and (some) shoes.

A while back, Darren Hailes posted a message on his blog (darrenhailes.blogspot.com) about being privileged. He even has a link up on the left hand side where you can put in your salary and it tells you roughly where you rank in the world rich list. Let's just say it's a little sobering.

The thing is, it actually makes me want to make more money. I guess I figure if I make it, rather than someone else, then more people may get a goat and a shoe. I think it's about time we got another sponsor child... And then maybe another...

Converted

I think I'm officially a Firefox convert now.

If you don't know what Firefox is, it's a web browser. I do a LOT of web browsing. Both in my job and at home, and frankly, it's now a sensational program. I used to find it buggy and unstable, but that's all changed with all the changes. And all the incredible extensions make it SOOOO much better than IE for browsing the web.

If you haven't yet, go download it and give it a try - and check out the extensions section at https://addons.mozilla.org/ as well.

You can even get an extension called ietab that lets you open links in IE, but still within a tab in Firefox. Now, you will either find that really cool and useful (some sites only work with IE), or you will be thinking 'huh'? I guess it's a matter of perspective...