The One With The Day That Turned Out To Be Not So Bad.

I hope you all had a fantastic and enjoyable Australia Day. Mine could have been more celebratory, but it sufficed. My Australia Day consisted of a 10 hour shift starting from 8:30am to 6:30pm. My shift really should have only been 8 hours long, but someone from work just had to chuck a sickie. (Hope you're better Kassie). Staying back the extra 2 hours wasn't actually bad though because I got to work with Adrianna, who is like one of the coolest people at work, at least now I know she is. I mean, someone who comes in on Australia Day to cover someone's shift, and work in an area of the store that they're completely foreign too, you gotta give them respect points. Other than that, a great person to talk to.

After I finished work, probably one of the most discouraging things happened to me. Since I had to open the cafe this morning, I had to use the store key to unlock all the storage cabinets., fridges, freezers, etc. After unlocking everything, I left the key in my pocket, with the intent of eventually putting it back in the safe box where it should be. Sure enough, I leave work with the store keys still in my pocket, despite the fact that the person working that evening needs them to lock the store. I had to drive all the bloody way back to work and return the keys.

It wasn't a complete waste of petrol though I guess because I ended up having some games of bowling with Adrian and Jeaneline. I also realized that Castle Hill stocks Size 15 bowling balls, which is hardcore. I've gone bowling so much the past couple of weeks and I still can't win a game. Fail.

The One With The Unlikely Encounter.

Short entry tonight. I ran over a turtle today; of all things to run over, I wheel over a bloody turtle. I was driving on Doonside Rd this afternoon in the rain and I noticed a rocky item crossing the road further ahead. As soon as I got up close to it, I realized it was a turtle crossing the road, but the wet surface prevented me from swerving and evading. Not too sure if me running over the turtle was fatal - I'm hoping its hard shell was enough protection.

This random occurence was just something I had to blog.

The One With The Easy Course.

Just a random thought, or realization rather, and most of you are aware of this too. Isn't it amazing how many great songs you can discover on your hard drive that you never knew you had in the first place, all by configuring your media player to shuffle mode? I've come across like 10 or so great songs that either I never knew I had, or never gave a chance but later realized how great they were.

Here's some notable mentions, not that I expect you to go chase them up or anything.

• The Getaway Plan - Transmission - someone give this vocalist a medal for being so perfect. THIS IS NOT THE OFFICIAL VIDEO EITHER.
  
• Sick City - City Lights - the piano parts at the beginning got me thinking "hey this song is pretty cool, let's not skip this".
  
• Breaking Point - Reality Show - this song came up while I was browsing 'Unusual Deaths' on wikipedia.
• Brand Nubian - Maybe One Day - I really liked the music in this; I also noticed Common's voice the moment I heard him.
  
• DJ Quik - Safe & Sound - I didn't even know I had a DJ Quik album on my hard drive. Then again, I have like 50GB of Hip-hop I haven't fully listened to, courtesy of Blake.

Okay, in more relation to the blog title, my boss made me apply for an RSA certificate because not many of us at work have them, which is a problem since a lot of people purchase from our bar. Being the great employee I am, I went through a 5-hour course at the 'Alex Beaumont Hospitality Training College'. I must say, Alex Beaumont is a fucking funny man. His humour made it comfortably easy to retain information, however remembering information was not an imperetive since we were all allowed to talk to each other and swap answers during the final exam. If there was one memorable thing from the course, it was his impersonation of drinking a 'blowjob'. Funny shit.

Now that I've got my RSA, I should go for my RCG.

The One That Makes No Sense?

So around 12am this morning on the way home from work, I'm driving along Hambledon Road which is a back-way road going through the acres of Quakers Hill and Rouse Hill. It's a fairly quiet street with usually no other cars. Anyways, I'm driving straight though feeling kind of sleepy, but at the same time looking at my surroundings. All of a sudden I find myself running through a mailbox and a sign post and into a jagged ditch, damaging much of the right side of the car.

Seriously guys, I'm like a magnet for car incidents. Apart from yelling the F word in my head the whole way home, I was anticipating the reactions of my parents who have always had to cover the costs for my on-road stupidity. I didn't want to wait the next morning to tell my parents because I wouldn't be able to sleep. Anyways, both my parents were pretty calm about the whole situation ...

And yes ... I mean CALM. If this situation were in a sit-com, their lines would be "another car accident? Oh what a surprise...". Seriously, their reactions made no sense to me. It's got to be the age. They definitely would have mutilated me if I were still 17 and on my red P's.

You know what's cool though, but makes no sense? I have a brand new iPod Classic courtesy of $350 worth of Harvey Norman vouchers my mom got from a work colleague. Seriously, if I were in her shoes, using a $350 gift voucher on my son's iPod is the last thing I would do, especially when they've just caused $2000 worth of damage to the car. I actually judge my parents very harshly for not kicking me out sooner.

The One Where I Blabber, And You Skim Through..

So I'm back from an interesting evening at work. My shift should have been a no-sweat and free-flowing shift with hardly any bowlers on the premises, but thanks to the black-outs affecting many of the households in Castle Hill and its neighboring suberbs, we were swamped with customers looking for a great time. At one point Kassie and myself had to handle 15 orders at the one time, and as we tried finishing up the orders, more customers just kept coming...

Yesterday I hit up a totally empty UltraFit gym and did some bench press and bicep and shoulder exercises. Can't believe so many dollars were wasted last year on my former gym at Ripples when I could have saved $50 a month with a membership at my current gym.

Later in the evening I picked up Adrian and we drove to a random house in Acacia Gardens to pick up Jeaneline. Getting there was the biggest challenge and makes me question my map reading skills and if I'll ever be able to sucessfully navigate on long road trips. After the biggest waste of petrol finding the house, we drove back to Jeaneline's place to grab some beach and camp chairs, then we picked up Jasmine and we were off to the drive-in cinemas.

When we arrived at the drive-in cinema, I made it clear that we would find one spot and one spot only. On the previous occasion, we ended up going from spot to spot to spot to spot and back to the spot we started with. Stupid indecisive passengers. The movies we watched were Yes Man and Four Holidays. At one point I accidentally made dented a can of Pepsi Max and sprayed it on Jeaneline. Sorry about that.

During the intermission, we played Taboo which is like the best game ever invented, however the only thing I achieved from this game last night was knowing that Jasmine is way out of my league.

Another thing I realized is that if you are to thoroughly enjoy your time at the drive-in cinemas, you must prepare well and load up on inventory. That means, bring all luxurious items you can that will make you feel comfortable, and all the food and drinks that you can. On the previous two occasions, I was too lazy to bring stuff like chairs and pillows, so last night I brought all those things and had a great time.

I'll finish this blog with like one of the best songs of the 90's.
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=_xf5ZlTlrgw

The One On New Years Day.

Happy 09' everybody ! Can't believe it's 2009 already. It's as if 2008 lasted for only a couple of weeks. Time just warps by the older you get I suppose. Anyways I'm back from spending the night at my cousins' place in which I tanked up on a ridiculous amount of BBQ pork skewers. Dammit somebody buddy up with me for the gym.

Other than that, there's a few things for me to look forward to this year, including:

• Moving houses (although judging from past delays in construction, failure to move in this year would not surprise me ... )
• Obtaining my less restricted, but complete drivers license.
  
• Going into my second year of uni, while balancing study with work and gym.
• Turning 20, and out of my teens.
  

I really just wanted to wish everyone a happy new year, and I hope you all kick off 09' by doing something enjoyable. Unfortunately for me, I have to get up for work later, so I'll blog you later.