OK … so I haven’t updated in ages. So what else is new ? It’s been fairly busy at work, and the other day my boss had a dummy spit about my “always” being online. Granted, I was surfing W1K looking for some new wallpaper for my desktop, but that was only because I was waiting for our dog-slow system to finish running one of my jobs. Regardless, posting to the blog during work hours has become somewhat problematic. Nonetheless, I’ll try my luck today, and hope the boss doesn’t come back early from his meeting !

So anyways, what have I been up to between updates , I hear you ask ?

Well first off, IG and I went to see a band called “Transit Ink” play a gig Friday last at some dodgey pub in Petersham. We got there at about 10:30, and the boys still hadn’t come on. So we saw the last half hour or so of the support act, whose name I didn’t catch. The support band played standard Indie-Rock, nothing very original – all in all, pretty lame. Got to meet some of my girlfriend’s cousins and old mates in the meantime – a bunch of guys from Liverpool who had stood her up on several previous occassions. Talk about testosterone city !

I was definitely the ‘slightest’ individual sitting at that table, with the exception of IG herself. Perhaps this was the reason one of the mates of mates seemed to take an instant disliking to me, and spent most of the night alternating between giving me daggers and staring intensely at my girlfriend from half a metre away – without talking to either of us all night ! I was also conscious of the fact there was a little bit of ‘history’ between her and one of the other dudes at the table, so it didn’t help my state of mind that that particular guy looked like he could have easily squeezed the life out of me with one hand and still have enough muscle power left over to lift a small ute with the other. Bloody Italian-Stallions … they’ll be the death of me, I swear ;) Granted, he came across as a decent enough bloke, I hear he’s marrying a nice Italian girl, and HE wasn’t giving me daggers … but still, it’s a bit weird meeting one of your partners ex’s, especially when looking at them makes you feel a little inadequate ! Strictly my problem mind you – I know IG has no interest in this guy anymore.

Finally, at around 11 o’clock Transit Ink came on to the stage. Like Perregrine, these guys are old friends of Lisa’s, and in addittion the lead guitarist is the brother of a distant relative (gotta love those extended wog families !) – so she’s been to a fair few of their gigs. Apparently they’ve recently changed their sound – I have it on good authority they used to be a sort of Metallica/Van-Halen hybrid. If this is the case they’ve definitely done well at redefining their sound, because the songs we heard on Friday could best be described as ‘funk-influenced Indie-Rock’ … and they were pretty damned good ! Thus it was a bit of a shame that the pub management made them wind the set up after only 45 minutes at quarter to 12 ! Although on the plus side, it meant that once my girlfriend had made her various goodbyes, we could leave the testosterone zone and I could feel like a whole man again instead of a pipe-cleaner figurine. Not to mention, I didn’t have to feel death-stares aimed at the back of my head anymore ;)

OK – that was the Transit Ink gig. Last Wednesday, we went to a pub in Surrey Hills to watch the State of Origin on the big screen. Free steak, cheap beer and a great night of watching the Blues thrash the Marones. It wasn’t a bad night at all, only slightly marred by me spilling some water on the patient IG when I accidentally knocked her glass over. I got a dose of instant-karma for that mind you, when I was sick as a dog later in the night from either (a) the greasy chips that came with my steak or (b) the steak itself. I’m not sure exactly what it was, but either way 1 a.m found me shaking with nausea and projectile vomiting in a handy laundry tub while my girlfriend slept undisturbed in the blissful cocoon of her own bedroom far away in Bondi.

More recently (i.e. the weekend just passed), IG and I went for a romantic trip down to the Hunter Valley. We left Sydney on Friday night, got to the Formula 1 Motel in Newcastle at about 9pm. Now my girlfriend had been putting shit on the Formula One for several weeks, due to the chains unfortunate reputation as a ‘shaggin motel’ in Sydney. A reputation, incidentally, of which I wasn’t aware until I met IG and she pointed it out to me – although since then, a number of other people have confirmed this is the reputation they associate with Formula 1 also. So I’m glad that upon arriving, the Newcastle Formula 1 proved to still be up to the excellent combination of affordability/cleanliness/non-tackiness that I’ve always associated with the chain, from staying at a few different ones in the course of various inter-state/inter-city travels. I think it was one of those very rare occasions where I’ve proved to be more right than my wonderful girlfriend. So I’m glad she was pleasantly surprised !

On Saturday morning we took off for Pokolbin, and spent the rest of the day driving from one winery to the next, admiring the picturesque wine-country views, sampling many delicious varieties of vino, and occasionally purchasing bottles to take back with us. Later we drove back to the motel, picked up some supplies at the well-stocked Wallsend Coles, and had a mini-feast of wine, cheese, crackers and cheese-twists in our motel room, along with some quality … erm … cuddling :) Not only was it wonderful to spend such a romantic day with my beautiful girlfriend, but it was also a bit of a nostalgia experience for me, having gone on a Hunter trip or two previously in my late teens with Mum & Dad.

Sunday morning found us cruising the streets of Newcastle for some action – or to be more accurate, for a shop that was actually open, for want of anything better to do ! Wearing a pair of bright-green ‘VB’ beanies we’d scored watching the Origin game on the Wednesday, we felt like proper ‘bogans’ – said fact confirmed when we spotted a number of local derros wearing the same beanie on our trip through town. We ducked in to a music / fashion shop called “Rock City”, which was suitably tacky, and also contained at least one other local in a VB beanie. We left after a bit of happy browsing, but not before the geriatric gentleman (sans beanie) hanging out at the front of the store had taken the opportunity to spend some time checking out my girlfriends norgs. Afterwards we went for a bit of a walk by the seaside, and checked out a surprisingly BIG cathedral at the appropriately named “Church Hill”. We followed this up with an exceedingly over-priced (and exceedinly sweet) Indian takeaway, and made our way back to Sydney.

Sunday night finished off with us crashing at my place for a bit, before I spent some time looking in the newspaper for jobs and my girlfriend watched hot lesbian action on tele courtesy of ‘Kissing Jesicca Stein’, then a version of the Cinderella fairytale starring Drew Barrymore. I was planning to make us some dinner, and we were going to settle down to watch BB, when my flat-mate arrived home and made it clear by her actions and her scowl that she was none-too-pleased to see us. Probably something to do with the fact she had her ex-boyfriend in tow again, and was probably counting on having her ‘wicked way’ with him (a mental image I don’t even want to contemplate, given neither of them is particularly ‘easy on the eye’). So IG and I made ourselves scarce and pissed off to her place instead, where we had some good (but rich) Indian takeaway and watched a bit of tele. Finally at around 11 I tucked my darling in to bed and bade her goodnight, and went home to crash.

All in all then – a weekend of pure gold ! :)