Journal

I haven't written anything for quite a long time now, but I think all of my adoring fans should know that in my heart of hearts I have been intending to write, and when you think about it, isn't that what really matters?

Some of the things I should really have written about:

• The DS I got for my birthday
• The M3 adapter for the DS
• Attaining Gold Class Frequent Flyer (maybe not so important for everyone else, but I am an elitist now so I am allowed to gloat)
• Barby cutting her hair really short (it looks pretty good, photos to follow)
• Vague plans to fly to Spain next year
• New gadgets and gizmos I am interested in
• The cars I was trying to choose between before I scored Cayley's car

I also went back to university on Tuesday to give a speech about what it is like to be a Mechatronics Engineer in WA. I was a guest speaker at the Association of Mechatronics Engineer's event "What is Mechatronics." It was nice to see that the club is still running since Liam and I left it in the hands of a group of people who for the most part we had not met until the AGM when we held the voting. The next AGM is in 3 Wednesday's time I think so Liam should be back from India and we will see about getting the afternoon off work to watch.

One interesting thing to note; the new club is committed to having the maximum amount of people at their events, so they hold them at 1pm when they assume most people can attend. Liam and I wanted the maximum amount of people at our events so we held them with 6 cartons of beer and a dozen pizzas, after 5pm. We will see which strategy pays off.

I officially had my first Mid-twenties crisis yesterday; my first day as a 24 year old. I'd organised post work drinks (not actually post work in the strictest sense of the phrase, since I left work an hour early to go to the pub) and I had a fair amount of people turn up.

Even Shaun was there, which was nice.

Barby had promised to cook me dinner last night so I was looking forward to finishing up the drinks and going to eat whatever she had prepared, so I was surprised when we eventually left the bar and my good friend Liam left with us. When I asked him where he was going Barby said that we were dropping him off at his house on the way to late night shopping. This also came as a surprise because 1) I hadn't until then heard anything about shopping; and 2) when I think of late-night shopping I think of the shops near my house, which is the exact opposite direction to Liam's house.

Anyway, we drove to Liam's house and before Liam got out of the car he asked us if we wanted to come in for a minute. Not waiting for Barby to refuse him (we were going shopping) I quickly agreed, as I had left most of a carton of premium beer at his house over the weekend and was keen to pick it up. Thankfully Barby acquiesced.

We went and rang the doorbell to get Liam's girlfriend Faye to open the door. When she did both she and Liam called out "Surprise", although there was nothing surprising about Faye being there; Liam's mum is out of town and she is practically living there as far as I know.

So I walked into the kitchen to get my carton and noticed that Faye had heaps of stuff cooking. Not wanting to intrude, I decided that Barby and I would take the carton and make our excuses to leave. While looking around I walked into the Dining room and saw the table set very nicely for four.

*dink*

That was the sound of the penny dropping. We had a wonderful Pork roast with accompaniments, and some chocolate puddings for desert. My only complaint would be that there was simply too much food. I ate so much of it that I almost enjoyed it all a second time in the car ride home.

Thankyou Liam and Faye and Barby for the wonderful surprise dinner; it had all of the factors of a fantastic meal; lots of meat, my best friends, plenty of beer, and everyone was paying lots of attention to me.

Barbara and I celebrated our anniversary yesterday, marking three years since the day that she finally relented. We decided to mark the occasion by eating out at a proper restaurant, since the majority of our meals to date have been KFC eaten in the glaring flourescence of the restaurant while we waited for the movie start time to arrive.

Yesterday was different: I had to make an actual reservation for our dinner, which I believe is a first for us. Also, Barby stopped worrying that she might be overdressed for the locale and started worrying that she may be underdressed.

The evening progressed very similar to the story that follows:

Matt's Story of his 3yr Anniversary Dinner with Barby

Matthew smiled to himself as he typed the last email he would be sending for the day. The time was 5.50 and he would soon be on his way to Barbara's house to take her out to dinner at an expensive restaurant. Julio's. He'd dined there once before and found it to be exceptional.

Text Missing

'Job well done', Matt thought to himself as he walked to the train station. The food was excellent, the ambience was comforting, and the company was beautiful.

There was of course some eating and drinking of wine at some point, but that did not really centre on me as much, and I assume that is why people are reading a blog about me.

Barby and I went to the Rio Tinto Ball last Saturday (the day after the cocktail party) and had a pretty good time. The beer was ample, the dancing was contagious, and the taxis home were free. Not much bad to be said about it after all.

More photos of the night can be found in the gallery. I havent put any high res ones up yet so you'll have to make do with the pared down ones I put in the misc. album. The Ball was an opportunity for some fund raising, so there were lots of framed and signed movie posters and other acoutrements around the room. A soccer ball that had been signed by two famous brazilians called Pele and someone else elicited only scorn from Barby. Apparently the only soccer player worth mentioning was an Argentinian. The name could be Maradonna, but if I am wrong I reserve the right in advance not to be physically assaulted. There were also several prizes awarded to ball attendees lucky enough to have the right number on their ball tickets. Congratulations go to Rod on my table, who won a weekend in a nice hotel (I think).

My friend Liam invited me to his house for a night of cocktails and movies last weekend, and also introduced me to the worst shooter ever.

Do not try this at home, I can report that the recipe is horrendous. Not even diluted with 10 times its own volume in milk is this beverage able to be casually imbibed.

On the plus side, I made a bunch of awesome Mojitos, which tasted superb. I still have to get around to trying out watermelon vodka, which by all accounts is pretty good. I heard about it maybe 6 years ago and have been too busy to try it.

Entertainment for the night was the movies 300 and TMNT. While I don't think 300 is the kind of movie that you can have too much of, I might try to limit the amount of times I watch it so that it remains a favourite. I probably will not be watching TMNT again, it had its moments but it is very definitely a kid's movie.